Thread: Where is the future php or asp ?
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Old January 29th, 2009, 07:00 PM
Old Pedant Old Pedant is offline
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You know, this is kind of a pointless question, because those who prefer PHP will answer "PHP" and those who prefer ASP.NET will answer "ASP.NET" (and those who prefer Java will answer "JSP" or "J2EE" or...).

I think they *ALL* can be used for most any application. I haven't done much PHP, and it strikes me that it *REALLY* needs to be used inside some "framework", much as JSP is now done in one of several frameworks (e.g, Tapestry or Spring or Struts or...). I have zero experience with PHP in frameworks and don't even know which ones are available. Assuming that there is one available that is as good as the JSP frameworks I mentioned--or as good as the framework provided by the combo of using Visual Studio and ASP.NET--then I don't know that it would really make any difference at all.

The "trick" here is to use building blocks that are tried and tested. If you were to write JSP or ASP.NET or PHP without using ANY framework...well...it certainly can be done in all 3, but you will work a *LOT* harder. You will be reinventing the wheel.

It might be better to ask "Which technology will (a) last the longest and (b) will pay me the best?" Right now, that does *NOT* seem to be PHP. From my own experience. And I'd have to say the JSP is still somewhat behind ASP.NET, even with the advent of frameworks like Tapestry. So I would *LEAN* towards ASP.NET, but that might just be my own prejudices showing.

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Regarding the databases: Hands down SQL Server is better than MySQL. Period. So much better in so many ways that it's almost not worth discussing.

Having said that...

For 95% of applications, I'll bet either one would do equally. I *LIKE* MySQL. I used it when I can. But if the application is "mission critical" and I didn't have to worry about the cost...I'd use SQL Server. (But don't forget about Oracle!!! It might be the best of all. I just don't have any real experience with it, so I can't comment more.)

As for "what language to learn next"? I know Fortran, Pascal, Prolog, C, C++, VB.Net, Java, JavaScript, HTML, a dozen different old BASIC dialects, and a half dozen assembly languages. Why stop at one language???