Which server-side language?

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Discussion

jsr

Original Poster:

1,155 posts

250 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
Which server side language do you think i should learn? PHP, ASP, ASP.NET,... etc?

I any one more popular than the others, or more powerful?

alunr

1,672 posts

264 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
Theres lots of different reasons for learning each one.

I chose ASP/ASP.NET as I use a lot of MS Scripting stuff in my day to day stuff so learning ASP was easier. I also use Access a lot which helps too.

Do you have any experience of programming in any form?

jsr

Original Poster:

1,155 posts

250 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
i've good knowledge of Delphi and love messing around with Flash + Actionscrpt.

I would be using Access db's too.

fatsteve

1,143 posts

277 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
Horses for courses I'm afraid.

ASP is great for knocking up code quick and is relatively easy to learn (compaired with PHP, JSP, CGI etc). It's only draw back is that code can be spagetti like since its hard to efficiently split logic and presentation.

Steve

alunr

1,672 posts

264 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
fatsteve said:
It's only draw back is that code can be spagetti like since its hard to efficiently split logic and presentation.

ASP.NET has started to address this but as such is harder to learn - although not TOO difficult

tim_s

299 posts

254 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
jsr said:
Which server side language do you think i should learn? PHP, ASP, ASP.NET,... etc?

I any one more popular than the others, or more powerful?





ASP.NET is a framework not a language. There are quite a few languages that use the .NET framework, the main 2 being C# and VB. Heck I've even heard something about Cobol.NET being sold somewere!!!

defo go fo C# if you've used delphi / actionscrpt before.

>> Edited by tim_s on Friday 15th August 16:44

>> Edited by tim_s on Friday 15th August 16:45

>> Edited by tim_s on Friday 15th August 16:50

jsr

Original Poster:

1,155 posts

250 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
what is the .net framework?

is it a cross-platform 'thing'?

ATG

20,566 posts

272 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
.net is msft's new envisionization of the future ... it is quite like the set up with Java ... your code runs on top of a virtual platform that should make it machine and operating system independent. In reality it ain't cross platform yet .. who knows if it will ever be. However, it is the basis that msft recommends for all distributed web app development on the windows platform. You get lots of useful XML and SOAPy type stuff out of the box.

Actually, when I say it ain't cross platform, that should really read "this is still a Msfty thing". You can get .net framework for Msft O/Ss including stuff like their handheld platforms.

>> Edited by ATG on Friday 15th August 17:56

anonymous-user

54 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
.Net is being ported by a couple of projects, most notably Mono.

But, knowing MS, they'll just wait until Mono or one of the others matures enough to be production ready, then they'll change things. However, they have submitted the .Net Common Language Runtime to the ECMA so if it's accepted (has it been already? I've been a bit out of M$ for a while), then changes like that would be made harder.

I'm a bit biased, but I'd probably go for learning Java and C# - they're similar enough for it not to be too big an issue. Your main problem would be learning to the two different object models.

The actual choice will come down a long way to what you want to do:

If you're just going to be hacking up eCommerce sites for small businesses, then PHP would probably be best as you'd have a good base to start hacking osCommerce.

If it's going to be websites plus the odd SME intranet thing, then they'll probably want their intranet to run on MS IIS and SQL Server, so ASP or preferably ASP.Net.

But if you're going big enterprise stuff, then .Net is going to take off slowly, but Java has a pretty good foothold with J2EE already.

And if you want to get into bed with the big boys, check out the site I'm working on at the moment when it gets it's public launch in September: www.sdn.sap.com/ - It's all about developing, with Java, on the new SAP NetWeaver platform (J2EE server, portal, EAI, etc.).

jsr

Original Poster:

1,155 posts

250 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
to be honest, all i want to do at the moment is add a message board to a site. I could use a third party forum/msg board, but i would much prefer to develop my own.
i'm sure i could then find other ways to use databases in my sites.

i'm certainly not developing eCommerce sites (not yet a least). It's just a hobby at the moment, but would like the ability to add server side scrpting and databases to my sites

ATG

20,566 posts

272 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
one thing worth considering is the license fee implications of the platform you choose. Msft platform is pricey if it can be reached across the web ... MySQL, Apache etc. are free.

dontlift

9,396 posts

258 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
with what you want to do go with PHP MySQL on Apache / Linux for these reasons

a) It all free..... How much does the MS studio cost these days
b) it's cheap to host .net servers are silly money
c) it's quick
e) it is fairly basic and will give you a good grounding to move onto othere later especially c#
f) there is loads of freely available forum / content management apps out there in PHP which you can implement quickly then learn how to modify later

Nuff Said - and all this coming from a very seasoned MS developer

jsr

Original Poster:

1,155 posts

250 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
cheers for everyones help. will probably go for php for now, but will look at asp.net as i get more advanced.

thanks again.

joust

14,622 posts

259 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
PHP - PAH! What ever happend to good old VMS??????

dontlift

9,396 posts

258 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
ATG said:
ASP.net machine and operating system independent.



You dont know how hard i laugh every time i hear this, MS have been using this holy grail for many years, but everything they do winds up a platform dependant mess..... and this will be no different they will never port the frame work because no fcuker else wants it. and they will never do anything that doesnt stand a chance of paying.

The .Net frame work is a MS only platform and always will be and whilst the unwashed masses are still blinded to the use of anything but MS it will continue to Win (and this will not change) but as an MS developer of over 10 years myself the tools of choice at the momement are not coming out of the MS stable. however the MS ones (if you are a contractor) are the long term cash cows

dontlift

9,396 posts

258 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
joust said:
PHP - PAH! What ever happend to good old VMS??????


sadly it dies along with Latigid, probably the worlds best ever operating system

joust

14,622 posts

259 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
dontlift said:

sadly it dies along with Latigid, probably the worlds best ever operating system
What about la Acorn ATOM?????

dontlift

9,396 posts

258 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
joust said:

dontlift said:

sadly it dies along with Latigid, probably the worlds best ever operating system

What about la Acorn ATOM?????


Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

joust

14,622 posts

259 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
dontlift said:

Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YES YES YES - you know it makes sense.

Oh - those were the days. 16Kb of RAM, shadowed of course....

J

dontlift

9,396 posts

258 months

Friday 15th August 2003
quotequote all
joust said:

dontlift said:

Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YES YES YES - you know it makes sense.

Oh - those were the days. 16Kb of RAM, shadowed of course....

J


lol i well remember the old DEC core memory boards on the PDP's 8k and about 2ft across