Some PHP & ASP.NET comparison questions

[nuwanda]

Hi

I've just started constructing a small database driven site. I'm using PHP and MySQL. Things are going well so far.

I did have a go at using ASP.NET. I found it more cumbersome than PHP, especially where MySQL access was concerned.

Now, I can see the advantages of ASP.NET but is it best suited for certian types of sites and PHP for others?

That asked, here's a more specific question:

In ASP.NET it's easy to dynamically populate one listbox based on the selection in another without refreshing the entire page. Can I achieve this in PHP? I'm thinking of the type of listbox that defines things like states and the selection of a particular state populates a second listbox with the towns in that state.

Regards

Ross

[Webwork]

You might get a quicker answer here:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[mattglet]

You're actually asking a JavaScript question. If you're not looking to refresh the page, you'll need to load all your choices, and use JavaScript to choose which ones to show and when (based on the selections).

[MrSpeed]

Now, I can see the advantages of ASP.NET but is it best suited for certian types of sites and PHP for others?

In a nutshell no. However I think ASP.NET is geared more towards the corporate world that has deeper pockets. They want the piece of mind of using a Microsoft product.

There use to be a saying about IBM, "Nobody ever got fired for buying an IBM". The same can be said for choosing a MS product.

I have done some informal side by side performance testing of PHP and ASP.NET and they seem to be similar.
Some of the syntax is similar between PHP and C#.

I still consider PHP more of a "scripting language". To debug I echo out variables.
ASP.net allows you to step through the code to debug which is nice.

[mattglet]

I still consider PHP more of a "scripting language".

That's because it IS a scripting language.

There have been many .NET vs PHP vs ASP vs Java threads here. Everyone has their personal preference/needs/limitations.