Advantages of ASP?

To start off I mostly make sites for my self that Primarily use PHP and MySQL but I have done a few for my friend who does not know PHP or MySQL.

Now I got a friend who works in web/graphic design, and has been for a few years now. I was talking to him about web design among other things, and he said that If I was looking to get into a job similar to his, that companies look for ASP knowledge before PHP. That would be my first question, I am assuming he is correct but would like more peoples opinions. Second since PHP is quite close to me, what would be the advantages of using ASP vs PHP?

I did go to Barns and Nobles and picked up a basic ASP 3.0 book that was of my favorite line of books. Im looking at this booking going "I could do this with PHP too" sure there are a few cool things ASP can do different than PHP. Now this could change because i have not gone very deep into the book yet.

Thanks

IMHO, ASP means Microsoft. This is probably why a lot of jobs look for it, because it proves you have coding ability on the Microsoft side. I work with ASP everyday, and with the new .Net that came out, it is amazing. ASP is also extremely easy to code with, since it uses VBScript, MYSql and you can just toss it in with HTML or JavaScript. Also, there is a big difference between ASP 2.0 and ASP.Net

I can't say vs PHP, since I've never used PHP.

Well, I've only ever used PHP for the sole reason that it's 100% FREE.

It seems to me that most business use ASP because it's Microsoft and costs $big bucks$ which to them = Professional and Better.

For all I know it might be better, but my experience with Microsoft products make me think otherwise.

If you already know PHP I would just stick with it as it's free and can do anything that ASP can do.

Chris_F said:

Well, I've only ever used PHP for the sole reason that it's 100% FREE.

It seems to me that most business use ASP because it's Microsoft and costs $big bucks$ which to them = Professional and Better.

For all I know it might be better, but my experience with Microsoft products make me think otherwise.

If you already know PHP I would just stick with it as it's free and can do anything that ASP can do.

Click to expand...

OK, here's my opinion(s)... first, regarding the price, it's actually possible to run ASP/ASP.NET on non-Microsoft platforms, though I admit, the main advantage is for easy integration w/ other MSFT platforms, like Exchange, SQL Server, etc. As for cheaper, I guess that depends on how you define TCO. Before I joined Microsoft, I've worked for companies justify going either way, so I won't belabor the arguments. But to be fair, free licensing doesn't mean cheaper in the long run. For a lot of companies, the licensing of the software is fairly inexpensive. Just to imply the cynicism that it's more professional because it costs money -- I'd doubt many "true" professionals really feel that way when it comes to infrastructure.

NOW, back to the question. First, you can learn ASP or ASP.NET for free on Windows XP (or earlier OS's). WinXP has a lightweight version of IIS5. If you took me back to pre-.NET days, I'd say, yeah -- PHP/ASP -- whatever you'd like to do or feel more comfortable with.

But now that ASP.NET has been out, and v2 of the .NET framework will be out by year's end, the clear advantage (IMO) is to ASP and ASP.NET. ASP has a fairly quick learning curve, and it's easy to upgrade to ASP.NET. While working on a Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition workstation running SQL Server and .NET Enterprise Architect is nice (and expensive), you can also get by with Windows XP, MSDE (or Access, even), and ANY number of free compilers out there.

So from an upgradeability viewpoint in terms of skillsets and power, I don't think PHP compares. And while I admit I'm biased, I'd rather have ASP, ASP.NET, C#, SQL Server in my toolbox than PHP and MySQL. Maybe not the right decision for everyone, but it's not as expensive to learn as you might think.

-Brian

You are just saying that because MS is forcing you


Yea for my main webserver I got a Linux box running Apache 2, PHP 5, and MySQL. For the MS side I got an old Compaq Proliant 1600R server, running W2k Advanced Server, IIS 5 I believe. My biggest deterrent from ASP is its mostly limited to MS, I love my linux box so much.

Ok I have never looked this up so if its just stupid don't answer, but whats the difference between ASP 3.0 and ASP.Net?

Thanks

I hate using IIS. I tried it once. Now all I use is Apache. It's by far the best webserver I've ever seen. PHP and MySql integrate with it quite nicely.

Yea, I had trouble getting IIS to work with me correctly, but this server is just going to be used for me trying out ASP. My linux box is super stable and I can get Apache, PHP, and MySQL installed in about 40 minutes (I need a real server) if i need to reformat.

Archer36 said:

You are just saying that because MS is forcing you


Yea for my main webserver I got a Linux box running Apache 2, PHP 5, and MySQL. For the MS side I got an old Compaq Proliant 1600R server, running W2k Advanced Server, IIS 5 I believe. My biggest deterrent from ASP is its mostly limited to MS, I love my linux box so much.

Ok I have never looked this up so if its just stupid don't answer, but whats the difference between ASP 3.0 and ASP.Net?

Thanks

Click to expand...

LOL... well, we have a standing rule at MSFT: pretend billg is reading your posts, b/c odds are, if it's out of line, he will be

Seriously, though, I do love .NET. I've used Pascal, Ada, Java, C, VB, and by far my fav is C#. But you're right -- if your OS is linux, you're better off with PHP, JSP, etc.

Having said that, have you tried Mono? http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page

As for ASP.NET vs ASP -- ASP is fairly simple, typically in-line VBScript that is pretty much non-OO. ASP.NET though is built on .NET, you can compile the code, it's fully OO as you can use any .NET language. The extensibility and ease at creating HTTP Handlers, modules, web services, etc., in .NET is a dream...

.Net is a cross language library system. It means I can write a control, like a clock, in VB and give it to bth who can then use it in C#. Neither of us needs to know about the other language, only about .Net. .Net is also a very large set of already developed libraries. The old VB suffered from not having direct access to the large library of stuff you could get with C/C++. In .Net everything is available to every language. IMHO .Net is also designed much better than any other MS library. The whole message procedure business is buried and replaced by events, which are much easier to use.

Ok, I am torn what to do but I am leaning to further develop my PHP skills because I still have lots to learn. But it stinks that you cant have an email function in ASP like you can in PHP, or to upload a file though ASP is difficult i hear. My web desgin right now is more of a hobby, I do a few small job for people but I higly doubt it will be my profession.


Thanks for the help all.

Archer36 said:

But it stinks that you cant have an email function in ASP like you can in PHP, or to upload a file though ASP is difficult i hear.

Click to expand...

Nah, you can do both of those in ASP. E-mail in ASP is very easy (CDO) ... file upload is hard natively, though there's plenty of free components to assist in file uploads.

With ASP.NET, both of these are very easy.

bth said:

Nah, you can do both of those in ASP. E-mail in ASP is very easy (CDO) ... file upload is hard natively, though there's plenty of free components to assist in file uploads.

With ASP.NET, both of these are very easy.

Click to expand...

But they are not functions like PHP correct? I lost my reciept for B&N so I think ill keep the book, try it out but more as a hobby and run php more serious.

Also you said it works with MS SQL but ASP works with MySQL too correct?

I see-- well, in "classic" ASP you'd just use CDO or any number of free email components, though you need an SMTP server (I imagine the same is true of PHP, never tried it). Normally this can be your ISP, or you can use IIS' built in SMTP server, etc.

As for databases -- sure, you can use any ODBC compliant DB...