Newbie question

[P.S.W.]

Hi guys,

I'm just starting to tinker around with web programming, and I was wondering what the difference in capabilities is between using VBScript/ASP vs. PHP. Can they both do the same things, or is one more powerful than the other? Or are they used for completely different kinds of applications altogether? I am trying to decide which one is worth learning, or if I should learn both

[crptcblade]

I say its always a good idea to learn as many languages as you can, but I haven't gotten into either of the ones you are looking at yet, so I can't really pass judgement on either one...just learn both

[sail3005]

Well, from what i have seen and from expericnce, they are both basically capable of the same things. One reason that many use PHP and MySQL over ASP/VBScript is that PHP and MySQL are free!

[scoutt]

It would also depend on what your server has on it. ASP is primarily winNT server as php is on Unix server. I don't think you can run asp on unix but I might be wrong. But as far as which one is better, well I think they are pretty close. It is like fords and chevys, one is better at soemthings while the other is better at other things. basically user/server preference.

Scoutt

[sail3005]

I think that you can use ASP on linux using a program called Chillie ASP. I have not used this myself, but i have also heard that it is not very good either.

[hellswraith]

ASP is free also. It is just a text page like HTML. You could use it with MySQL also if you want. Don't feel like your limited. It is mostly a matter of preference.

The cool thing about the ASP+ is that it will be compiled instead of interpreted. That should help performance a little.

Yes, on a linux machine you can use Chille.

If you know Visual Basic, I would go ahead and learn ASP first. Won't take that much of your time, and you could start developing faster. Then when you get the hang of it, move on to PHP. That's what I would do.

[sail3005]

Yeah, well any text is free, but if you don't have anything to process it, then it is just text, not ASP. You have to pay for Windows NT.

[Kagey]

Dang, i should have copyrighted the spiderman avatar.

anywho. the rule is usually asp for a windows server, and php for unix base servers. but you can use it either way, just not as smoothly

[sail3005]

Has anyone here used chilie ASP? If so, any comments about it?