[agentxcell]

Okay, so I am about to start learning MySQL as I want to be able to query databases and such, so I was just wandering opinions on whether to integrate it with PHP or ASP or if either one has a distinct advantage? Also what program is good for developing the databases? As always any input is much appreciated.

[John Good]

PHP is free A$P is not

[agentxcell]

I did not know that.

[pgo]

I'm pretty sure you can learn ASP and develop it for free. Visual Studio isn't free, but you can write ASP without it. As a Microsoft product, ASP is more often paired with Microsoft's MySQL competitor, MSSQL.

I think. I only use the AMP stack - all open-source.

[bluesage]

I think. I only use the AMP stack - all open-source.

LAMP stack?

ASP as a language is free , you can develop with it using notepad if you like, but Microsoft has developed some very handy GUIs such as Visual Studio or Expression Web which make developping ASP, more precisely ASP.NET quite easy and quick.

Downside to using ASP.NET in my opinion, is that the html rendered isnt that great, and you cant really control that.

I dont mention ASP because I have no experience with that, and if im not mistaken, its not really used much anymore.

Anything microsoft requires Windows based hosting, which is hard to find, expensive and from my personal experience with the few hosts I have tried, really bad. It works well for corporate servers where everything is handled internally in my opinion.

Php seems to have a larger community, but ASP.NET's is growing. I have found quite a few tutorials and examples on the web which allowed my to learn the basics (for ASP.NET).

[longisland6]

i use mysql and asp for development. the reason is that asp was the first backend programming language that i learned. i eventually started using mysql because it's open source and it has a nice search functionality that works great with sql select statements.

agree completely about asp.net; it renders some pretty ugly html. maybe good from a development standpoint but not really good for a web 2.0 accessibility, standards compliant code standpoint.

you can run asp on a non-windows server but you'll need a plug-in of some sort like chilisoft.

once i have the time (ha!) i'd like to learn php as i've heard it works well with mysql and you have a broader range of server technologies you can work with.

[pgo]

Originally Posted by bluesage

LAMP stack?

Well, I said AMP stack - Apache, MySQL, PHP.

LAMP = Linux Apache MySQL PHP
WAMP = Windows ... ... ...
MAMP = Mac ... ... ...

[funkyprem]

Originally Posted by bluesage

Anything microsoft requires Windows based hosting, which is hard to find, expensive and from my personal experience with the few hosts I have tried, really bad.

Sorry mate, that's not quite correct.

One option I've used before is chilliASP which is a plug in for linux that gives you an ASP engine. 5 or so years ago when I used this it didn't support things such as CDONTS for emailing but the point is you can run ASP code on a linux box.

I'm sure there are probably others out there by now. Like I say I looked into this 5 years ago now.

[funkyprem]

Originally Posted by longisland6

you can run asp on a non-windows server but you'll need a plug-in of some sort like chilisoft.

sorry dude, beaten to the draw!

I really should read things properly first!

[pgo]

I think bluesage's point stands. You'll have a hell of a time finding a Linux host running ASP unless you get a dedicated server, but then you need to know Linux and install it yourself!