ASP or PHP is the question!

**SagarP** · 01-09-2008

Hello friends I am bit confused with programming languages Since i am a newbie it will be very helpful if you cleare my doubt with this.
I am having trouble to decide which language should i learn first!
ASP.net OR PHP?

Will you guide me? Please!

**Amar saxsena** · 01-09-2008

Hello SagarP!
Don't get confused! First get clear with the basic difference between these two things!
First of all, do you know any other programming languages already? if you have experience with Visual Basic, you'll be able to easily pickup on ASP.
Database
Both ASP and PHP are languages used to build Dynamic Web sites that can interact with Databases and exchange information. ASP (Active Server Pages) is from Microsoft and is used with IIS (Internet Information Server) that runs on Microsoft Servers. PHP (Personal Home Pages) is from Rasmus Lerdorf. It runs on Unix and Linux servers and it also has an NT server version.
Base Language
PHP is based on C++ language and the syntax used in PHP is quite similar to C/C++. C/C++ is still considered the best programming language by many programmers and people who love this language would surely feel more comfortable with the syntax of PHP. ASP on the other hand has a more Visual Basic kind of syntax that again is closely related to only Microsoft products. So, it depends on a person-to-person which language he or she is comfortable.
So the moral is if you are comfortable with C, C++ then go with PHP programming & if you are good at Visual Basic thing then go with ASP.

**SAeLac** · 01-09-2008

PHP would be best, its easyer to learn and you can have a PHP server for free but you can find some realy good tutorials for both PHP and ASP at http://www.tizag.com/
P.S. I dont work 4 tizag or anything but it helped me learn both PHP and ASP

**Amar saxsena** · 01-09-2008

Lets evaluate some basic things Required on programming...
Server or platform:
ASP runs only in windows ( can also run on Linux but not supported by many host and not so compatible), while php runs on both Linux and windows server. So its clear that ASP is most expensive to run coz we need window server and then iis .. even though iis is free but window server cost much more.
Platform Compatibility
PHP programs can run on various platforms like Linux, Unix, Windows and Solaris whereas ASP is mainly associated with Windows platforms. However, ASP can run on a Linux platform with ASP-Apache installed on the server.
Database Connectivity
PHP, being extremely flexible, can connect to various databases, the most popular being MySQL. ASP mainly uses MS-SQL.
Conclusion
Both languages have their advantages specific to users. If we talk about developing a discussion board then ASP is equally capable but many feel the best discussion boards are developed in PHP. f a user is looking for some e-commerce application development then many would call ASP the ideal choice. This does not mean that PHP cannot provide e-commerce solutions. From my perspective, PHP is an all around better choice than ASP.

**xtract** · 01-09-2008

PHP is not the direction to go into if you intend to work for high end corperations such as e-commerce. PHP is an open source code, meaning it is a great language to learn for personal portfolios and portals - even to go as far as forums and communities.
For more economy-based websites, a deep and thurough understanding of object oriented programming is a necessity. A very solid understanding of programming (not scripting (php is a scripting language)) is vital in both performace and security. In this essence, PHP somewhat lacks the freedom as some other Server Side Languages thus is not as well suited for large tasks.
An understanding of database managment is also vital. To manage the database, you must also learn SQL-type languages. PHP, however well it interacts with MySQL (and that's about it), I believe the Oracle and Microsoft Server support does not really exist.
If I may go far enough, most corperations write their own languages to avoid security loop holes and extensive functionality, mostly based on a C-type language.

**HiJon** · 01-09-2008

It depends on the job. Learn them both. Actually, learn lots of languages. Learn how to program well. I've had lots of arguments with non-programmers about how a programmer should stick to just one language and learn it really well.
To someone who wants to learn how to program (a few years of javascript is a good start, grasshopper). Plan on learning at least 1 new language a year. Make that one of your main goals in life. I see this bit of advice over and over on the 'net. There's a reason for it: it's excellent advice, and people don't listen.
You may wind up learning some obscure language that you never get a chance to use in the Real World. Doesn't matter. That language will expand the way you think about things and approach problems.
ASP vs PHP. Depends on what you want to do. If you're wanting to create websites for yourself, on relatively low-budget hosts, plan on PHP. You (as individual) will probably get more mileage out of it. If you want to get a job with a company that will pay you insane amounts of money for very little real work, learn ASP. If you want to develop a serious web app that handles some really hard-core problems, look into plone. There's probably something similar based on perl.

**switchblade327** · 01-09-2008

Hi Amar saxsena.

Thanks for providing those info. And SagarP, yes PHP is much easier to learn. However if you know something about scripting then you can definitely go for ASP.net.