Re: Advice for an asp developer

Nice explanation for ASP.NET. However I have used ASP.NET and find
productivity and maintenance to slide to the negative side of ASP.

Database work is a bear. You need expensive tools and purchase
additional controls. If you use their prebuilt controls you are stuck
with their limitations. Basically you have no control over your
javascript with these controls or you have to figure out their inner
workings..

Lastly you application is not portable back and forth to Linux and its
MS centric.

PHP offers protability, free or pocket change tools and flexibility and
is progressive. Maybe if are making American Express website you would
use that APS.NET. After all what is a few millions to AMEX.

However for most average businesses PHP/MYSQL gives them more than
adequate performance at all levels. And it is well known even in the
suited world of global corporations.

Lastly as proof that Microsoft actually 'supporting' PHP is the
tutorial presentation they gave at NY PHP Conference last month:

https://www.nyphpcon.com/speakers.php#da4187404c8e8744e68f694cec23af8a

PHP Rocking in the Windows World

They dont care what you program in as long as you are tied to Windows.

Harold Crump wrote:
Hi Pepper --

I have experience with all three platforms - the 'old' ASP, ASP.NET and
now PHP

My perspective is that PHP and ASP.NET are not competing/replacement
technologies.
They serve different purposes and cater to a different customer base.

As you no doubt know, ASP.NET is very different from ASP and is light
years ahead of it.

You can compare ASP with PHP, however, not ASP.NET with PHP - they are
different beasts.

I am fairly accomplished with ASP.NET and have designed and built
several enterprise-strength, mission critical application with ASP.NET.

My humble opinion is that PHP cannot compete in the same product space
as ASP.NET - not because of any technical limitations but because of
speed, framework/OOP, and productivity reasons.

While it may be technically possible to build the same complexity of
applications with PHP as with ASP.NET, PHP cannot match the
productivity and framework support that ASP.NET offers - there is
simply no competition there.

Some of the stuff that we routinely build with ASP.NET in months will
take years to build with PHP, even if you throw an army of developers.
Maintenance and extensibility is another important area where ASP.NET
wins hands-down.

OTOH, PHP caters to a product space where ASP.NET doesn't stand a
chance because of the cost footprint, skill availability and other
reasons.

I currently build web applications for small to medium businesses where
I will not consider ASP.NET because it is an overkill - both in terms
of cost as well as complexity.

At the same time, I routinely build stuff in .NET that I would be nuts
to even think of building in PHP.

Asp.net just seems too complicated for
the majority of stuff I do and I miss the more simplistic scripting
way.

True - see above.
They serve different purposes.

I don't use WYSIWYG editors, don't mind writing a few lines of
code. I seem to end up with at least one frustrating moment with every
asp.net project trying to do somehthing that I felt was simple in ASP
classic.

You can still do "classic" ASP with ASP.NET.
However, ASP.NET is specifically meant for those systems that *require*
the extensibility, productivity and OOP support that .NET offers.
Anyone who has built those beasts with ASP, COM+, VB 6.0 knows what I
am talking about.
Compared to ASP.NET apps, those ASP/COM+ beasts seem like something out
of the Jurassic age.

I have never used PHP but understand it is similar to asp (vs. using
asp.net), and would like to hear from someone experienced with all
three (ASP, PHP, ASP.NET) if I am missing the boat or if I should look
to PHP as a viable alternative.

It is a viable alternative for certain types of apps, as I mentioned
above.
I don't see them as competing products, but as different tools for
different tasks.
Which is why PHP can never really threaten Microsoft in the way Java
does, nor can .NET rob PHP of its customer base.

My $0.02

-Harold.

.

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