PHP vs ASP

[Anon]

I'm looking into the possibility of switching our development from ASP to PHP due to the portability of PHP (some of our clients like NT servers and some want UNIX).

Is there anything that PHP can not give that ASP can?

I guess many of you have used both PHP and ASP, and I'd be grateful to hear your thoughts on the merits of one against the other.

Thanks,

Owen.

[Anon]

When the project isn't to big and productivity is very important, then face it, PHP is better.
It's faster to code and requires less restrictions.

One really kewl thing that you can do with PHP, that you can't with ASP is 'include()'
If you <!--#include in ASP the code in the include file is automatically squeezed in there, but not with include() in PHP.
require() in PHP does the similar thing that <!--#include does in ASP.

The nifty thing with this is the following:
You can also - in PHP - include a variable include file.
for example include($sub_menu_items)

This would only "squeeze" in ONE piece of extra code whereas with ASP you can't.

What positivly surprises me is that I selldomly hear of developers who migrate from PHP to ASP, but rather from ASP to PHP.
Hmmm, can there be a reason for that?

[Anon]

This sounds like any old argument of computing when you have two similar software systems..

My rule fo thumb is if the client is big and has money ASP is the way to go, support is good , and although the product might be bloated and completey Windows based, it works, and it SCALES, look at all the major sites running ASP (bn.com, nasdaq.com, and of course microsoft.com, all these sites and mroe get tons of traffic), and truth be known getting a site on an NT server shouldn't be an issue for the client, if they're going to pay you big bucks to build something, the server/hosting cost for nt should be inconsequential..

For smaller more budget minded clients, who want to run everything on a shoestring budget, go with PHP, its easier to build in, (for smaller light traffic sites) and you can't beat the price...

-tony

[Anon]

If that's the only thing that are different from PHP to ASP.... Still ASP is my favourit. Have you heard of server.execute()???

[Anon]

Forget not...
PHP4(Zend) is faster than ASP to begin with.

ASP's errorhandling is appaling. That is why you more often see ASP error messages than you see PHP errors.
The other reason might be that PHP is easier to code and therefore less risk or errors.

I don't have to persuade you to go for PHP instead of ASP. They're both fairly good SDKs.
If you really want something proper, Java and/or Zope should be used.
Check out www.zope.org

[Anon]

Do you hava any idea of how many times did I have to restart my server in a month with NT?
7 timesI just change to Mandrake Linux and after 2 months I didn't have to restart it.

[Anon]

What you'll have to miss when using PHP:

• application variables
• COM objects
• server.transfer & server.execute
• CDONTS

PHP is a little bit faster then ASP, IF it's installed as an part of Apache and not via CGI. It has some functions that are build inside PHP instead of external COM objects (like sending mail, accepting file uploads, accessing files at an other server). On the other hand, you don't need to recompile php and restart your webserver when you're installing an extension.

I use both languages, PHP for small low-budget projects, and ASP for the big work.

Ofcourse the discussion between PHP and ASP is usually about being a Windows or a Linux fan, but when you look at the language/system itself there aren't really big speed diffrences between PHP, ASP, JSP, ColdFusion etc. BTW: I'm not going to involve in the linux/NT discussion since i'm a mac fan 😉