ASP Vs PHP, Who wins?

I've used php before and it's a great language to learn and use, i've also worked with asp (briefly on a project of mine). There seems to be a lack of qualified asp programmers out there and a definite shortage of windows hosts when compared with unix.

This got me thinking, why is this? ASP is Microsofts language, is it not? I was just wondering why isn't ASP as popular as php, nearly everyone I speak to is either learning or codes in php/mysql but hasn't even tried ASP, why isn't it the language to learn? Are there any major benefits of PHP over ASP or is it just a personal preference?

I know alot of the big companies/industry use ASP but I can't understand why, PHP is a great language and has alot of flexibility. Maybe someone can put me straight on a few of these questions!

ASP only works on IIS on Windows
PHP works on almost all major webservers on all platforms

Check out the difference in licenses between PHP and ASP

PHP syntax is simple and it's probably the fastest executing one out there
ASP syntax is horrible (to me, at least) and it's slow as hell

PHP can be run as a CGI or compiled as an Apache module (Apache is the most popular web server out there because of speed and its amazing flexibility and ability to be extended due to the modular nature)
ASP can't

Lot's more...but I gotta go now. I guess I'll post more later

PHP is open source and problems are fixed very quickly. ASP is run by microsoft and their new patches come out slowly. I prefer PHP over ASP just because many people prefer their scripts are run by php/mysql backend. Personally i have never tried coding in asp.

PHP is the best

Originally Posted by Koobi ASP only works on IIS on Windows PHP works on almost all major webservers on all platforms Check out the difference in licenses between PHP and ASP PHP syntax is simple and it's probably the fastest executing one out there ASP syntax is horrible (to me, at least) and it's slow as hell PHP can be run as a CGI or compiled as an Apache module (Apache is the most popular web server out there because of speed and its amazing flexibility and ability to be extended due to the modular nature) ASP can't Lot's more...but I gotta go now. I guess I'll post more later

Couldn't have said it better. I agree completely with Koobi

imho it really depends on the nature of the program, who its targeted at and the platforms you have access too.

we have applications at work that are powered by asp.net/sql. one is called Connetix and the other is called OnRecord (by a company called London Systems) both a powered by asp.net and sql driven. i belive this is best because there an enterprise application so speak.

most schools run windows and have at least one server on site running iis. so why not? plus we have applications now that are sql powered (not web based) and its just easier to interact with them.

but if your building a website for people to visit then go for the php/mysql option, its free and open source.

asp.net / sql is more geared towards private and education sector. not your local hillbilly looking to get a family website built.

and belive it or not asp.net is relativly easy to get your head around.
take this for example http://linux.intentio-server.com:81/forum
i built that with about 2 days worth of asp.net studying, its sql driven and you can register, login,logout and it emails you. its no where near finished though

theres pros and cons of both

One more thing...lot's of people say that ASP is not secure...but that's not entirely true. ASP is quite secure if you run it on IIS on Windows but that shouldn't be the case IMO. The fact that it's not cross OS compatible really puts it down.

Also, keep in mind that ASP is very different to ASP.net
.net is a framework, you can work with many languages on the .net framework.

Originally Posted by Adam most schools run windows and have at least one server on site running iis. so why not? plus we have applications now that are sql powered (not web based) and its just easier to interact with them.

But those are not valid rationales when discussing which is better is it?
But you're right, it depends on your needs as a developer.
If I remember right, I think it was ASP that had inferior database support? Not sure though.

Originally Posted by Adam asp.net / sql is more geared towards private and education sector. not your local hillbilly looking to get a family website built.

IMO ASP is a bad language to start off with if you're learning. You know the syntax. It's terribly messy. It reminds me of Visual Basic.
Also, there are many private and education sector based sites that run on other languages such as PHP. The more business oriented sites prefer JSP which is a very good choice because of its flexibility and robustness.





One thing PHP will never be is fully OOP.
I'm sure you've heard this a million times but at it's heart, PHP is a procedural language and so it will most likely never have all the OOP features. Such a pity though, OOP just makes it easier...but PHP5 does have many of the OOP features.

By the way, does anyone know if ASP supports Regular Expressions?

OOP? I didn't really know what asp was, everyone just said that php and mysql were the best for creating CMS style sites. So I learn't php, haven't really touched asp and I won't unless I:

A) Get extremely bored 1 holiday
B) Have to learn it for some reason

Originally Posted by opserty OOP? I didn't really know what asp was, everyone just said that php and mysql were the best for creating CMS style sites. So I learn't php, haven't really touched asp and I won't unless I: A) Get extremely bored 1 holiday B) Have to learn it for some reason

OOP = Object Orintated Programming
it basically means you can scramble your code. put things upside down. side to side and it will still work

where as with php its linear
so

$blah = "blah";
echo $blah
will work but

echo $blah;
$blah = "blah";

wont work but with oop you can move things about.

OOP to me is more like being able to treats things as objects so you can seperate them from each other...so they are just floating objects that can be controlled seperately so you can really optimise performance and instead of having to rewrite structures of code or common functions, you can reuse objects because at its heart its more or less like an engine.

But these are just different ways of explaining it