[Wolves] ASP?

[Stuart Langridge]

On 8/14/07, Philip Harper <ph004h7245 at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> As part of my research into technologies I don't know much about, I'm
> now looking at ASP.  Has anyone used ASP (ChilliASP on Linux maybe)?  Is
> it worth using?  Does it have any advantages over PHP?

ChilliASP, while still available, is basically an abandoned product
and, importantly, won't run a lot of ASP pages (it's built to emulate
an older version of ASP).

In terms of ASP itself, there's a big advantage *if you're using it on
Windows*; it's insanely easy to get running (because you just install
IIS and there it is). If you have the choice to develop from scratch,
though, I wouldn't recommend it; PHP is cross-platform, meaning that
you could migrate from Windows to Linux or vice-versa, and it uses the
same sort of "mental model" as ASP does (you mix up code and HTML; you
don't have to do it that way, but it allows that sort of programming
approach). While PHP (and everything else on Windows) can access
third-party packages and operating system functions through COM, using
COM stuff is often simpler from the ASP environment. However,
ASP/VBScript and ASP/JavaScript both have a very limited model,
meaning that you *need* to use third-party COM objects to do stuff
such as sending mail (and these COM objects are often both non-Free
and cost money). PHP has a "batteries included" approach where lots of
functionality comes with the language.

Hope that helps!

sil

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I feel about average.
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