Which one will suit me the best - ASP, PHP or something else?

Hey ppl,
I am new to DP and new to Web Programming. You can assume I have very little idea about web programming, though I can decently manage Visual Basic, C/C++.

I would like to learn PHP or ASP or something similar.
Meanwhile, I am also planning to start on a website in which I want to have comparisons of 10 different products with say 10 versions of each product. I want it to suggest the best product/version based on the user's usage and needs, plus simply provide comparisons between any chosen product.
I want the site up in about 6 months time.

So please suggest which platform will be best to work with and implement it on my site as I learn.
Thanks.
Regards,
VizMAX

 

Well having already been exposed to some Microsoft platform languages, ASP may be a good fit, however keep in mind that hosting packages with ASP are not as popular as those that come with PHP and often times more expensive to setup. Also most people use hosting with PHP on it, so while you might be able to charge more for .net services, your customer base won't be as plentiful. I switched from ASP (pre-.net) to PHP back in 2003 and I haven't looked back.

 

Thanks a lot for your suggestion.. Will surely help in deciding one.
I was thinking about ASP.net, but then as you pointed out that finding a host is diificult, I will reconsider my options.

 

ASP .NET is getting more and more popular, so I would go with it. PHP is this one of the best program languages but as I can say people prefer ASP .NET websites.

 

based on what?

Again based on what?

You have to use windows hosting to run ASP.net, and I don't recall the last time I see windows-based shared hosting. Also the development tools for microsoft products are strictly windows based rather than multi-platform.

 

ASP.NET is the most powerful, It has very strong session and application scope support. You can even specify routines that always run before and after any ASP.NET page (without using #includes). ASP.NET is rapidly becoming the most popular language for use with large corporate websites because of it's security support.

ASP is the easiest to learn and has excellent session and application scope support.

PHP can be learned quickly, but it's session support is weak and it has absolutely NO application scope support.

 

If you considering your career path then go like that Java, .net , ruby on rails then php .... you have to very clear about selecting a career path or working for your own self?

If your going to make your or client base i would strongly suggest PHP

To be a good programmer you need to first get into algorithms and data structures then no matter what language you select.

As i earlier stated as priority like Java is most desirable language in very high cooperate sector where programmers are mostly highly paid then .net programmers but you should remember that also it has very selected market and few good programmers.

So its upto which path you choose on which level you want ur self like you want to be a freelancer and self owned company then scenario is different.

Regards
nomzz

 

When you learn programming one language is very easy to switch to another language. I was c++ before I turned to PHP, I did it 2 days.

 

If you can "decently manage Visual Basic, C/C++" then you won't have any problem at all on either ASP or PHP. Learn both.. .

But i recommend PHP first! hehehe.. .

 

Thanks for your thoughts guys!
Will be starting with one soon (probably, PHP) and may venture out into others later. Thanks again.

Regards,
VizMAX

 

PHP is probably easier, but thats not a problem if you've done c++ before

ASP.net i guess would be better choice

 

I don't really get why someone with a base in C (ANY C language) would not build on that further. To me it would be both (which I would totally get) or move forward with a path that builds on what they already know

 

I find I can program something much more quickly in asp.net (using C#, and Microsoft Visual Studio) then I can in PHP.

The one big benifit of programming in PHP is the web hosting is heaps cheaper.

 

Sounds like a personal problem.

 

First learn C/C++,It will help u to understand any language properly,on the other hand u will understand PHP easily.

 

Not really. One thing I have never heard from any PHP probrammer is that Visual studio is a slouch IDE. Most see it as the best IDE in the world.

Now what I like about PHP is the sheer volume of reusable and tweakable scripts behind it. ALL that MS has to answer that is some starter kits (and much fewer third party Open Source scripts)

 

Depends on what you're using and doing, you can get plenty of reusable code in ASP.net as well, matter of cutting and pasting the same way the people with PHP do (just much larger number of PHP coders that its easier for someone to be a "cut and paste" scripter in PHP)

Far as IDE, I really like the Komodo IDE for PHP and Python, though I use Coda quite often. I wouldn't consider Visual studio the best IDE in the world except for those who may have only used VStudio compared to say NotePad++ or BBEdit.

Would be kind of nice though if they made their IDE available on multiple platforms though

 

I always prefer NetBeans and for php and javascript they have very nice support

 

Wasn't blowing smoke. I hardly doubt Infoworld would agree

http://www.infoworld.com/node/62960

"Visual Studio stands alone as the preferred development environment for applications using Microsoft's .Net Framework, and it's peerless among IDEs for any language"


True thats just one recent award but I think the more you look around most programmers only wish for an IDE better than VS.

True plus a few more languages? Maybe IronPython? I would love fuller integration with that and it may be in the works

http://www.codeplex.com/IronPython

 

Not sure I'd trust a website's opinion on a web development suite when their own site looks like a mess on my browser.