Posted by Tarscher on 08/06/07 09:36

On 5 aug, 18:58, "Brian Cryer" <brian.cr...@127.0.0.1.ntlworld.com>
wrote:
> "M" <nowhere...@twilightzone.net> wrote in message
>
> news:QoJsi.25946$_d2.7711@pd7urf3no...
>
> > Further to my recent inquiries about server-side scripting, it seems that
> > the web host for my friend's business site doesn't have PHP installed but
> > does have ASP (which I understand to be the Microsoft equivalent).
>
> Yes, ASP came from Microsoft. I believe ports are available for Unix
> platforms which means there is no reason why ASP can't be available for both
> Unix and Windows hosts.
>
> > My impression is that I can't install PHP myself -- it's something the web
> > host has to do, correct?
>
> > Second question: How much does ASP differ from PHP?
>
> > These questions may sound naive as I'm pretty murky about server-side
> > stuff.
>
> I think others have covered most aspects of this. Just a couple of points:
>
> 1. PHP is available for both Unix and Windows hosts. Since its free for the
> hosting company to install, there shouldn't be any reason why its not
> available for all hosts. Might be worth asking them whether they could
> supply PHP.
>
> 2. ASP has been superseeded by ASP.NET. This means in practise that ASP is
> obsolete and (in my opinion) not worth learning.
>
> If you are new to this then don't go the ASP route. (ASP.NET yes, but then
> that limits you to Windows hosting which is more expensive.)
> --
> Brian Cryerwww.cryer.co.uk/brian

I assume you want to compare ASP.NET and PHP? They are actually
incomparable because ASP.NET is a framework and PHP is a programming
language. You should compare ASP.NET to a framework that uses PHP
(CakePhp for example).

I both used ASP.NET and PHP (not a framework though) extensively and I
both don't like them:
- PHP has no consistency and is insecure. The object oriented model of
PHP4 is really, very, very, very bad. Although they improved it since
version 5 I think. On the other hand PHP has a very low learning curve
and a very big community. It's also open source.
- ASP.NET is overly complex and you need a heavy, bloated IDE for it
(Visual Studio). ASP.NET also uses strongly typed languages which need
a lot of compile time before you want to see changes you made. This
makes development cumbersome although Microsoft is working on
scripting language support for .NET and thus ASP (Python and Ruby).
Another drawback is that the learning curve is quite hard but this is
actually the case with most frameworks (vs languages). positive note:
ASP.NET is driven by the .NET framework which, in my opinion, is
great.

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