Best web app developing language to write a client/server app for Bingo game scenario

Question

Let's start from the assert I have low experience in web development, I am more focused towards desktop programming, but this could be an advantage, because I have no prejudices towards any solution.

The scenario to model is this. We need to create a web-based application which should be compatible with every mobile OS and device (or at least with the most of them). This app should mainly give to the user the possibility to check the billboards he bought during a match of bingo game.

This bingo game is real, played in a bingo hall, not on the web, but the customers of the hall will be able, through their devices (tablet, smartphones) to connect to a dedicated wireless network in order to enter the billboards they bought in a window and to see during the bingo game match, how many numbers of their billboards had been checked and if they did cinquina (a line, five in a row) or a bingo (the full billboard, 15 numbers).

In order to give a little modeling layout, I imagined that the best solution should be this.

• server role : the server sends to the clients some information about the matches, for example, the range of billboards that could be played, the extracted numbers in realtime, and so on; it gets from each client the range of billboards they bought; it "plays" the billboards, I mean during the balls extraction, it marks the corresponding numbers on the billboards received by clients for that match and it sends this information to the corresponding clients; finally, it signals to the corresponding clients if they scored cinquina or bingo.
• client role : the client is the web-based application which receives from the server the information about the bingo matches, it sends to server the billboards the customer bought, it shows to the customer the extracting balls, the marked numbers in the billboards and the event if the customer won cinquina or bingo.

I thought to give the weight of billboards checking only to server rather than distributing to the clients because in this phase I don't really know how the diversity of devices that work as clients could give delays in the case that the billboards checking should be moved from server to client. The most important requirement is that, in every case, every action should happen in real-time, or at least with minimum delay, not more than 1.5-2 seconds.

Now my question is as simple, as difficult to answer: Which is the best programming language to model this scenario? I know that there are many programming languages, even if I know that the main languages for this particular situation would be ASP.NET, PHP, Java (and maybe HTML5 ).

I include HTML5 in this list because it is very well oriented to cross-platform development and to mobile world, even if it uses (if I understood correctly) JavaScript in order to do the "dirty job".

I leave this question opened to all your considerations. You should feel free to suggest everything, even changes in my little modeling I talked to you, but the most important question is always the one related to the programming language.

Answer 1

Your main question is whether to develop a native app (for Android, iOS, etc) or a web site that is optimised for mobile usage. I think the latter is fine, in which case yes, you are looking at an HTML5 solution. Any language or framework can do this - the language is used on the server to produce HTML, and there is no "best" one. They all have strengths and weaknesses. .NET, PHP, Java, Ruby, Python, and several others! Take your pick.

To improve speed you could encourage customers to connect to public wifi at the bingo hall, and to reduce latency you could even have your web server on-site. A simple update strategy would involve JavaScript and AJAX, but look into Web Sockets, they are much more lightweight, and are useful for continuous update situations.