ASP or PHP

[Grant Petersen]

It not about the tools you use, it's the artist behind the keyboard.

True artists do not require expensive tools.

 

[Guest 20221009]

True artists do not require expensive tools.

 

[midrange]

Bashing Microsoft tools just because Microsoft made them is silly. ASP.NET has a lot of quality.

 

[FarligOpptreden]

Bashing Microsoft tools just because Microsoft made them is silly. ASP.NET has a lot of quality.

QFT!

Regarding the artist and tools analogy, it simply isn't true. You might be an artist specializing in graphite drawing, or colour pencil, or pastel, or water paint, or oil paint, or...

The point is, that artists specialize in different mediums. My wife has been dabbling in all the various mediums I mentioned and I can vouch that they all differ considerably. It takes completely different techniques to achieve a stunning art-piece for each art medium.

The same goes for server-side technologies. One person might specialize in ASP.NET and another in PHP and another even in Ruby. I'd recommend you get an oversight into each medium and specialize in one, so that you can truly create a masterpiece when the time comes...

 

[Nod]

Some tutorials;
PHP: http://www.webreference.com/programming/php/
ASP/ASP.NET: http://www.webreference.com/programming/asp/
Also a few others: http://www.webreference.com/programming

 

[Grant Petersen]

Bashing Microsoft tools just because Microsoft made them is silly. ASP.NET has a lot of quality.

Why? PHP is free. M$ tools cost a lot of money. The OP said he was bored and looking for a challenge. Why suggest that he learn something which is inevitably going to cost him, and others, money in the long run? I think one first needs to demonstrate that the paid option is significantly superior.

 

[Raithlin]

I disagree. I can download .Net tools for free - either MS-created (Express) or otherwise (#develop, anyone), and I can host for the same price as php - done. I can even develop using C# in Linux, so that argument holds no water.

 

[Grant Petersen]

How would you host for the same price?

 

[Raithlin]

www.circle.co.za and www.winhost.co.za - same company, same price (from memory, basic package) - different platforms.

[EDIT]
Now that I call on them, they've changed their basic linux hosting price!

Ok, let me rephrase that. They were the same...

 

[Grant Petersen]

 

[Raithlin]

Yeah, Ok. The rest still stands though.

 

[semaphore]

Yeah, Ok. The rest still stands though.

Mono is no where near production environment ready like the original stack. I am a maintainer on rawr (wow tool), and that thing has issues with mono, doesnt like 2.4 :/ had to revert down to 2.2

 

[Grant Petersen]

Yeah, Ok. The rest still stands though.

Agreed! Don't get me wrong, all knowledge is useful. I've learnt some M$ systems simply because I have to support them at work. I run XP on my laptop, but I won't create anything M$ based unless I get paid for it. My reasoning for this is twofold: Firstly, when I donate my time and energy I want it to potentially benefit everyone, not just M$. Secondly, M$ systems are in my experience generally easier to use, but show less of what is happening in the background and are thus less effective teaching aids.

I asked myself the same question as the OP a while back, but to me the answer seemed clear:

Don't touch ASP until you can do some seriously cool tricks in PHP. Otherwise you might just give in to the Dark Side and forget about it all together.

 

[semaphore]

or use ruby or python

 

[Grant Petersen]

Yeah, I'd actually LIKE to try those next.

 

[Adenoid Hynkel]

Some tutorials;
PHP: http://www.webreference.com/programming/php/
ASP/ASP.NET: http://www.webreference.com/programming/asp/
Also a few others: http://www.webreference.com/programming

wow, someone actually replied to me thx nod.

After a lot of research, I decided to first gain some powers in php. Conclusion, I could not find any valid reason not to go with asp, but, my hosting is unix, xampp works like a charm on my local comp. Maybe in a couple of months I will look into asp.net

 

[FarligOpptreden]

You can start looking at .NET by coding some console apps / windows apps / code libraries to get a feel for the syntax of C# though. You can even go the XNA route and program games for PC and XBOX 360...

 

[dyanamo]

One thing I have noticed in the computer programming industry is that if theres a demand for a particular product Y which does basically the same as product X and theres less of people using Y, then Y will generally have a better salary. In real world turns according to someone's post earlier, there seems to be about 2 times more companies seeking asp developers so in theory the php guys should get paid more because theres less developers making PHP more specialised. (Extreme example could be the difference in pay from a VB developer (plenty) as opposed to a SAP developer(minimal)). Am I correct in thinking this or is the marked so saturated with asp/php developers that it doesnt really matter.

 

[Raithlin]

That's a yes and no question. There may be more .Net developers, but I would say the bottom 60% don't have a clue what they are doing, resulting in the top 40% getting paid well for their (relatively speaking) better skills/experience. But that's just my experience. There is also a difference (why escapes me) between VB and C# pay rates.

I can't speak for PHP devs - haven't looked into that side of the market. Also bear in mind that SA is to a large degree a Microsoft factory, and this plays a role in what is available in the job market.

/* Disclaimer: YMMV */

 

[Grant Petersen]

I can't speak for PHP devs - haven't looked into that side of the market. Also bear in mind that SA is to a large degree a Microsoft factory, and this plays a role in what is available in the job market.

Sad, but true.