AOLserver, Tcl and Oracle: is this trio still a good option today?

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Hi Philip,
I'm just starting with web application development, and I would to
learn your opinion about AOLserver, Tcl and Oracle in today times: this
trio still worth the curve of learning? Or in another form: if you have
to build photo.net again, you will use AOLserver, Tcl and Oracle or you
will do it with another tool?

-- Abrantes Filho, October 1, 2012

Answers

I don't think that I would choose AOLserver/Tcl again, though it seems to be about as good/productive as any other tool. The people who have tried to rewrite applications that use AOLserver/Tcl ended up spending far more time than the original programmers and sometimes failed altogether despite the supposed superiority of the newest tools.
I love Oracle but unless you work at a company that already has a site license I probably would choose a free open-source RDBMS (e.g., PostgreSQL) and/or an alternative architecture such as Amazon SimpleDB.
It is a little sad that there is no obvious toolkit today for building an online community! The market is fragmented.

-- Philip Greenspun, November 6, 2012