surefire Posted May 30, 2003 Posted May 30, 2003 (edited) Before you vote or chime in... here's my two cents. The answer to "Which is better" really depends on the person answering the question. Usually, people are stronger in one code than the other... they are different in the ways they are written. I like the fact that PHP is open source and you get input from thousands of programmers willing to contribute script, tutorials, and improve the code for the next version. ASP is a Microsoft product. For those with a gripe against Microsoft... that's all they need to hear. Also, ASP runs best on servers running Microsoft, or can be installed with special software that ends up making it run a little slower, and less secure. Apache servers are great and that's what TCH uses. Edited May 30, 2003 by surefire Quote
TCH-JimE Posted May 30, 2003 Posted May 30, 2003 Hi, I am in the sticky situation of having to use ASP and PHP but not both together. ASP is good if your on a microsoft server running IIs and need to connect to Access. Unless thats all you can do, I would go with running PHP which is far nicer and easier to unstand whats going on! Jim Quote
darkwoof Posted May 30, 2003 Posted May 30, 2003 PHP, Hands Down! I tinkered with ASP as part of my IT Diploma course, and in the 6 months of effort I put into it I found ASP unnecessarily complicated at times, and much harder to pick up. On the other hand, I managed to pick up the basics of PHP in only a few days, learnt a whole lot more in two weeks, and all that from a single book borrowed from the local library. The open-source nature of PHP also means there are lots of external scripts I could use, look through and learn from. As far as I have experienced, the overall PHP communities are often more friendly and helpful compared to ASP ones. ASP, MS SQL and Windows Server OSes also lose out in the cost section. Linux, Apache, PHP and MySQL are free and easily available. Just my two cents. Oh P.S. I'm NOT a Microsoft hater too... I actually prefer Window's (interface!) over Linux most of the time... Quote
btrfld Posted May 30, 2003 Posted May 30, 2003 I don't know ASP. That being said, I agree with HG: MS is evil. As a C++ programmer, PHP is like coming home. Quote
leezard Posted May 30, 2003 Posted May 30, 2003 I have another site that is just a forum for an online game I play and it is all done in ASP, and I have my hardware site that is done in PHP. That being said.....ASP makes me CRAZY!!!!!!!! If theres an error in the coding it takes me hours upon hours to figure out the problem, with PHP I can usually figure out problems pretty quickly. for someone that isnt a coder (like me, I know some HTML and thats it) PHP is a LOT more user friendly. Quote
darkwoof Posted May 31, 2003 Posted May 31, 2003 I have another site that is just a forum for an online game I play and it is all done in ASP, and I have my hardware site that is done in PHP. That being said.....ASP makes me CRAZY!!!!!!!! If theres an error in the coding it takes me hours upon hours to figure out the problem, with PHP I can usually figure out problems pretty quickly. for someone that isnt a coder (like me, I know some HTML and thats it) PHP is a LOT more user friendly. I second that! With my ASP based project in school, I spent much of my time error hunting. With PHP, on the other hand, I was spending much more time designing and coding custom features. Quote
surefire Posted May 31, 2003 Author Posted May 31, 2003 I love all these comments. Since some of you guys have more experience with asp than I do, it's great to hear your experiences and opinions. It amazes me every time I see a job posting for a webdesigner, deverlop... all you see is ASP (and about twelve other requirements). The ignorance of companies never ceases to amaze me. It's like they're brainwashed to think everything Microsoft is gold. I guess there's no other option except for several us to start successful companies and hire php programmers. Quote
section31 Posted May 31, 2003 Posted May 31, 2003 Microsoft is just like any other corporation.. They are crooks. My vote goes to PHP. Quote
surefire Posted June 1, 2003 Author Posted June 1, 2003 Microsoft is just like any other corporation.. They are crooks. Gadzooks Hopefully, you meant any other BIG corporation. Don't lump well meaning entrepreneurs in there. Quote
matman Posted June 2, 2003 Posted June 2, 2003 I write ASP all day at work and then PHP all day at home, so I have a lot of feelings about this question. I can see why companies with a large investment in hardware, software, and training on MS-based networks tend to stick by MS. Also, even among relatively enlightened IT managers there is a fear of going with open source since there are no guarantees. I find I can usually solve a problem easier with free help on forums and newsgroups than with paid tech support, but if you have a tech support contract they HAVE to help you no matter what. I've had MS fly engineers out to us from across the country to help with a really sticky problem, but that was with a company that spent $manymillions every years on MS software and support. All that said, I can definitely say that I enjoy the coding I do at home at night (PHP) more than my ASP coding during the day. Quote
borfast Posted June 6, 2003 Posted June 6, 2003 PHP is the king, no doubt about it About the companies always using ASP, I don't know about other coutries but here in Portugal there's probably less than 1% of all companies using Open Source software. I can also understand the kind oh worries that matman described. But I really think people should start thinking a little more about all this, because just like matman had MS engineers to go and help them, companies can have contracts with other companies who provide support for Open Source software! And no, I'm not talking about little stores that have a crappy webpage and have a problem with a PHP script, I'm talking about corporations as big as Yahoo, which moved all it's database servers to MySQL. MySQL is Open Source but the same guys who make it also provide technical support for a fee. I also read somewhere that Yahoo was planning on converting their backend system from C to PHP. And MySQL is not the only company providing support for Open Source products. There are lots of companies who do that! Also, Yahoo is not the only big company using Open Source products in their business. What I'm trying to say is that the technical support is no longer an excuse (actually, it stopped being an excuse at least 3 years ago) for spending thousands on MS software and then spending MORE thousands on their support. OK, enough rambling, I'll just shut up Quote
Jaxx Posted October 2, 2003 Posted October 2, 2003 I have to admit, I really liked asp when I first started coding with it. Granted, it was a bit cluttered up sometimes, but still pretty cool. I think a big factor was how similar it is to coding VB, so my experience with VB certainly helped that. MS hosts, however, can get pretty expensive, especially when you look at linux based hosts like TCH where you can spend as much in a YEAR for an equivalent monthly cost of a MS host. So I let go of asp and figured I'd find something else friendlier to code in. I almost went with perl before I found php.I have to agree with btrfld, having worked with C++ awhile, it was even more comfortable than asp and VB was. I'm definitely a php convert. Better than Cats. Quote
jslagle Posted October 2, 2003 Posted October 2, 2003 .....ASP makes me CRAZY!!!!!!!! I've often wondered about the folks in our software development department at the office. That certainly explains a lot of things. My vote is for PHP. MUCH easier to work with. Quote
Montty Posted October 2, 2003 Posted October 2, 2003 What else more can be said... Except that I have been an ASP convert for years now (hobby), until 2 weeks ago when I wanted to develop some dynamic pages for my site which was generously hosted by a friend. His Server is of course (LINUX + Apache + php + php-txt-DB, no MySQL and no ASP components whatsoever... The only option left to me was to get my hand dirty with php which I have, for some stupid reasons, always avoided like the plague... Now after discovering that it would be cool to have some access to MySQL too I decided to find a real hosting company (I believe that you all have guessed which one I found ) But guess what... my hand are cleaner than ever... as php is actually extremely approachable... doing a DB connection has never been easier (don't want to rave about the amount of time wasted trying to connect to DBs with ASP and the dreaded 8005 error etc) The php manual is probably the only manual I have come accross in my entire computing life (25 years) which is well written, well organised and extremly rich with details from all sort of sources - in 3-4 words, really easy to read... The error reporting system is also so good and precise that it makes development real easy... And last but not least, a good indicator that PHP is the very leader in its field, is to look at the amount of available ressources available. This says it all to me. Just as an example, on www.hotscripts.com php = 7288 ressources against 2833 for ASP Anyway, If you can and only if you can, don't even bother waisting your time with ASP, this will lock you into oblivion... Instead, have fun and open the door to dynamic heaven by using php. Like TCH, Open Source Rocks I am sorry for such a long post but I thought I had to say it... Quote
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