• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

ASP or PHP?

J

JohnKimble

Banned
?

I would like to know what you (web developers) use, ASP or PHP, and why? And, how come 'corporate' websites are almost always in ASP, while 'community' based websites are in PHP?
 
PHP == open source.
ASP == microsoft.

I can't say why some corporations use ASP other than perhaps their infrastructure is based on Windows-based servers; I guess they also have the money to spend on Microsoft licensing etc.

I personally use PHP because it is open source. The syntax and semantics of PHP are more like C/C++, and Java rather than it being Visual Basic-esque. You can run PHP on basically any server environment: windows, linux, bsd, solaris, etc. On the other hand, running ASP on linux-based systems require additional commercial software (one of them I know has been purchased by Active State, I believe) which again requires licensing.

All you need for php development is to get a computer ready with almost any OS, go to php.net, download and install and make it work with whatever web server you are running. I don't even know how to get started with ASP other than having Windows, and IIS.

PHP and ASP aren't the only scripting choices you have, Ruby is getting ever more popular nowadays with ROR (ruby on rails), very fascinating scripting framework. You also have Perl, JSP and ColdFusion.
 
I'm a fan of both platforms, although at the moment I'm working primarily with .NET. I think Alphaz's statement about .NET being Visual Basic-esque is slightly misleading since C# is nothing like Visual Basic. If anything, C# is very similar to Java. That being said, the majority of webservers on the net usually support open source. Finding a good .NET server is definitely a bigger hassle than finding a good PHP one. Most good developers, however, could probably switch between any language with relative ease.
 
ASP.net is highly more commercialized and publicized because of ... well... like alphaz said -- Microsoft. Even though i'm not much of a programmer, ASP.net has a lot more control and depth in its applications. PHP is a simple alternative because some people don't need the power or applicability of ASP.net for their clients.
 
I use PHP primarily because it's open source and there's a great deal of additional open source software to support it. It's a great scripting language and it's free, what more could one ask for? I have a friend who is an ASP programmer (former company person that is now freelancing) who has just recently been working with PHP; he loves it and is using it for his projects now. Both languages will do what he wants but because he doesn't have a company to foot the bill, now he's tuned into open source.
 
I've never used ASP or PHP, but I'm an ASP.NET developer and I know that I love it. ASP.NET is a completely different beast than legacy ASP.

.NET probably isn't the cheapest platform, but I work at a very large company so I guess it isn't much of an issue here.

From everything I've read though you can't go wrong with PHP - I hear it's great for the price 🙂
 
Are you using IIS? ASP or ASP.Net.

Are you using Apache? PHP.

Either one can get the job done, as can Perl, JSP, or writing C/C++ executables for CGI.

Don't be blinded by tool fanboyism, use the tools appropriate to the platform and job.


for your edit:
Corporate sites are often tied to data on Windows database servers, so thin client apps can leverage the shared development tools and integration between IIS, .Net, SQL Server, etc.

Commie sites were probably started on shared hosting linux boxes then moved up to dedicated hosting on linux boxes.
 
Originally posted by: L1FE
...I think Alphaz's statement about .NET being Visual Basic-esque is slightly misleading since C# is nothing like Visual Basic....
Click to expand...

Oops, thanks L1FE for correcting, that was my mistake. I shouldn't have clumped up ASP directly in with .NET.

Again, it all depends on what platform you will have. My very first development project was completely Visual Basic based. Then I moved onto C++, C, then Java so my choice to work with PHP rather than ASP was strictly because it has been a long while since I worked with Visual Basic and am most comfortable with the php/c/c++/java semantics.

If you are trying to decide, you should really try both platforms and see which one can raise your productivity in getting what you need done.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top