[turbonostics]

Hi There,

I am starting to look into creating dynamic driven based websites.

I see a lot of people using ASP and a lot using PHP.

Which is one is the best to learn and more likely to be future proof?

Thanks,

[proc355]

someone is bound to correct me on this but afaik asp ("classic asp") is toast, or at least planned as toast - asp .net is the new white bread

as far as brown bread goes php is widely used and abused; check out ruby and python too, support/demand is growing exponentially

and remember:

* nothing is future proof
* there is no silver bullet
* good problem solving skills are portable

[Heka1]

right now asp.net like proc355 said is the standard, more large companies are using it for its simple C+ design aspect, but php is free and easy to learn (also a little like c+) php would be the safer bet to choose from as it is designed by other designers and should still be around for a few years since it is a open source script, php also works really well with MySQL and python which make it a powerhouse package.

[adam c]

Personally I'd go for PHP as it's open source.

[visio]

there is no question, PHP is here to stay!

[proc355]

Originally Posted by visio

there is no question, PHP is here to stay!

hmm, flippant and inaccurate


nothing is here to stay

[freelancr]

Originally Posted by proc355

hmm, flippant and inaccurate


nothing is here to stay

Perhaps, but for the purpose of this discussion, you have got to agree, only a moron would choose to begin learning classic ASP now.

ASP.NET vs PHP? Not sure yet, don't know enough about ASP.NET, but what I do know about it puts me off learning more. .NET is not very well suited towards stateless web applications, and I hate its poor use of automatically generating un-degradable hacky Javascript.

[proc355]

Originally Posted by freelancr

Perhaps, but for the purpose of this discussion, you have got to agree, only a moron would choose to begin learning classic ASP now.

ASP.NET vs PHP? Not sure yet, don't know enough about ASP.NET, but what I do know about it puts me off learning more. .NET is not very well suited towards stateless web applications, and I hate its poor use of automatically generating un-degradable hacky Javascript.

i was focusing on the "here to stay" comment

there is a prevalent attitude of the silver bullet - one language for it all - which carries with it unfounded ideas of grandeur and permanence - it's the nature of things that they change; thinking anything else is dangerous and intrinsically an evolutionary dead end.

afaic only a moron would go any where near microsoft, or for that matter anything proprietary, period. even microsoft are doing open source these days...

that said, plenty of work for .net developers - they are welcome to it though

[sleepingfish]

php or asp ?

[freelancr]

Originally Posted by proc355

that said, plenty of work for .net developers - they are welcome to it though

That's the problem, the .NET jobs out there are better paid, and there seem to be more of them.

[proc355]

Originally Posted by freelancr

That's the problem, the .NET jobs out there are better paid, and there seem to be more of them.

nobody pays you to be happy in your work

[Naatan]

Originally Posted by proc355

someone is bound to correct me on this but afaik asp ("classic asp") is toast, or at least planned as toast - asp .net is the new white bread

as far as brown bread goes php is widely used and abused; check out ruby and python too, support/demand is growing exponentially

and remember:

* nothing is future proof
* there is no silver bullet
* good problem solving skills are portable

I couldn't disagree more, ruby or python? Come on! Granted they're great languages but NOT for web development, there simply aint any programming language that comes close to the accessibility of PHP, and so what everyone uses it? Unless your a goth that aint a reason.

I'd say if your starting out, and its for personal/smallscale use, you should definitely go for PHP, hell even if it's large scale and professional, but in that case you should probably get into the details a bit more.

[wheedwacker]

php

[Lotricthus]

I've been meaning to learn php. Where's the best place to start?

[brendan hart]

I use jsp and atm its all i know, i was thinking about php but i thought, why do php when im learning jsp :S

next year ill be learning asp, but aye i heard some one say, more languages the better.

[Naatan]

Check my latest blog for a quick intro on PHP.

[proc355]

Originally Posted by Naatan

I couldn't disagree more, ruby or python? Come on! Granted they're great languages but NOT for web development,

not for web development? what are you basing that opinion on? little bit out of touch with reality there are we mate?

there simply aint any programming language that comes close to the accessibility of PHP, and so what everyone uses it? Unless your a goth that aint a reason.

that is incoherent ill-educated gibberish

I'd say if your starting out, and its for personal/smallscale use, you should definitely go for PHP, hell even if it's large scale and professional, but in that case you should probably get into the details a bit more.

i agree; i haven't said anything against php. there is, however, a wider choice than just asp and php.

[Naatan]

Originally Posted by proc355

not for web development? what are you basing that opinion on? little bit out of touch with reality there are we mate?

that is incoherent ill-educated gibberish

I have a fair amount of experience with python which I'm basing this on, like I said it's a great language, but it's definitely not as accessible as PHP when it comes to web development, it does what it needs to do and it does it well, but to say they (python & ruby) are considerable web development languages is nonsense if you ask me

[adam c]

I take it when you guys are referring to python and ruby you really mean Django and rails? They seem like pretty good web development languages to me, although I'm only basing that on work I've seen done not work I've actually done myself.

[freelancr]

Originally Posted by adam c

I take it when you guys are referring to python and ruby you really mean Django and rails? They seem like pretty good web development languages to me, although I'm only basing that on work I've seen done not work I've actually done myself.

I think you can create web applications using Python or Ruby without Django or Rails.