ASP or PHP...?

Really not sure...

[Harley_m]

OK, im asking this in both the .Net and PHP forums, as i want both sides of the argument - and i expect both sides will be more aware of the pros or their relevent side...

I have to develop a website for the company set up between me and my brother - selling both his software, and a 'sister' section which offers my web design services...

i dont need to worry about my side, as i can deal with that easy peasy...but i need to know which methid to use to build the site. The site will need to be nice looking/fast building ect, easily accessible by spiders and such, but with a fair bit of power behind it. The software my brother will be marketing will have complex license systems, needing the site to tie in with that, and then add records to a customer database that needs to be user editable. so when someone registers the software they buy, they gain access to serial details (generated on the fly by the site according to a number of details including computer details) and then add them into the database that they can then access and edit if details change ect ect...

i have not worked with any programming design tools - and am now looking to expand very much, using this site as the springboard...is ASP the way to go or PHP? not only for this site - but then for future sites (for example i have a complex image bank to set up afterwards)

which is quickest to pick up, bearing in mind i do have a seasoned programmer here to offer support of the VB side of .Net if i get stuck at any time...

also - how best should i go about with the site in question, is it standardish stuff, or will i be treading into unknown water with all this licencing stuff...?

Thanks so much, i really need some advice on this...

Harley

[ezGuy]

Hi,
I studied both and finally went with ASP. Why? Because I had to get a script and the best one for my job was in ASP.

You can look at it from diff angles:
-Server cost: PHP/Linux much cheaper, since ISP does not have to pay huge license fees to MSoft

-Development Cost: About the same, I would say. With ASP, you need Visual InterDev and possibly SQL Server (not free).

-Learning Curve: About the same, once you learn about post/get's and html, the syntax of the languages are pretty close

-DB: If you are using DB, then I prefer SQL Server, simply becuase the incredible native GUI that it has. I am not keen on writing a lot of scripts by hand. I also love transaction processing in SQL Server (maybe mySQL has it by now?!).

-Speed: PHP is generally faster, but I am getting pretty good speed with ASP- you must go with a top hosting company for that.

Hope this helps.

ezGuy

[txbakers]

If your server is Windows IIS, then I'd recommend ASP. It's easy to write and runs natively. Virtually anything you can do with PhP you can do with ASP.

You don't need a SQL Server back end, you can indeed use mySQL which is a free powerful database and runs just as well on Windows as *NIX.

If your webserver is a *NIX flavor you might be better off with PHP, since those have native support for PhP, although there are ways to run ASP on *NIX these days.

These days it doesn't really matter. There are good support for both languages, and both run on either platform.

If you've coded in VB or Javascript before, then ASP is a snap. If you've dabbled in Perl, PHP would be very familiar.

Both are excellent languages. To do some really heavy duty industrial stuff, take a look at JSP as well.

[shady]

Of the two, I personally would recommend php. I have used .asp for a couple of years and have now converted .asp sites into .php.
ASP/PHP as previously stated have similar functionality, but I have found to get good quality IIS/mssql hosting, I have ended up spending $200 per month. I tried cheaper and found them to be inadequate.
Unix hosting is generally about $20 per month for the same package and reliability.

[tomasz]

I like ASP.NET myself. I have .NET shared server with 200M SQL server and 200M space and 10G transfer for only $20 a month. It is much faster than ASP and PHP.
I think it was worth it to upgrade to .NET.

[jatar_k]

sorry Harley_m, nothing personal, but I got rid of the one in the PHP forum only because I thought you would get more valuable and easy to read information in one thread.

Don't worry, we'll get over here when we see a title like that. ;)

I, obviously, prefer php. I am more comfortable with it and spend most of my time coding it. I find it reminds me a lot of C which is a good recommendation from my point of view.

ASP, on the other hand, is similar to VB and leaves a foul taste in my mouth but I use it when it is the best choice. Every project needs to be assessed to find the best tool for the job. I won't rewrite an ASP website in PHP just because I prefer it.

In this particular case I would agree with txbakers. If you are in an IIS environment then go with ASP, especially if you have someone who is already comfortable with VB. That seems like it would be the most efficient tool for this particular job and keep the learning curve to a minimum.

[Harley_m]

Thanks very much guys - i have .net already - and so will proceed with that - im sure ill drop in here and ask for the odd bit of advice!

Thanks again...

Harley