Preserved Topic: which to learn.. ASP, PHP or CF ?

*looks around* dont normaly come into this wing of the 'sylum.....

anyway... i've decided to learn a backend/serverside language... btw i've never touched server side scripting except to install cgi scripts :P

the choice comes down to eaither ASP (ok ok i know it supposedly sucks, but everyone seems to be using it) PHP(from what i hear its easy to learn)... or cold fusion (seems used quite a bit)

what are your thoughts on what i should learn ? which is the strongest of the 3?
i dont wanna learn perl

From those three that you've mentioned, I would suggest that you learn PHP.

BTW PERL is the "BEST" server-side web-related programming language, ever...

PHP...

My friends who learned CF said it sucked. He uses it for his business... and he now picked up PHP and told me that so much more can be done with PHP compared to CF. I have used CF a couple of times, and really hated it.

ASP... it isn't OOP, at least VB script isn't... ASP = Bad... IMO

-mage-

I'm singing to the choir, but in a different key :-)

ASP is not bad if you're working on an INTRANET project -
The basic architecture of Microsoft stuff (IIS, ASP, COM) is for the DESKTOP, period.

For anything else it sucks (IMHO) - no multi-threading, clunky project management (VB DLL registration can be a reign of terror), and "black holes" Microsoft MSDN (MS Desperation Network) doublespeak .

It offers many attractive things; rapid deployment, easy debugging, easy learning curve - all the thing that make programmers "expensive" - It's only when people try to scale their intranet to the public domain that they realize what kind of deal they made with the devil.

[edit]
I like ColdFusion because of it's clean database access, and PHP for it's scripting capabilities... Keep in mind Perl has all of this stuff with a big support network.

Perl is kind of a bummer to learn if you don't come from an "algorithmic" programming background. Perl 6 is in development, and it may totally replace Perl 5 - you may be on to something by staying away from it. But keep in mind Maruman, you don't have to me a COMPLETE EXPERT to do really cool things in Perl!!!

I personally think you'd be better served by learning Java.

[This message has been edited by kevincar (edited 06-30-2001).]

Um, I should really go and research this but if I ask here and get an answer then I will have done just than right .

What exactly is JSP? Is it Java full-stop, or server side Java-scripting??

everybody needs a swamp bear

JSP is profoundly similar to ASP in concept and syntax. Many people have commented so.

Just as ASP is "compiled" into pseudo-code on the 1st-call to the page, JSP code is compiled into an actual Java servlet on the 1st call. There are advantages and disadvantages to both ASP and JSP, primarily centered around scalability and portability (java) vs. development time-cycle and server-architecture deployment (ASP/IIS);

for a good intro to JSP, go here .

I would also stay away from JSP... ugh... you can use a servlet to do it all, and it is so much cleaner...

-mage-

hrmm well at the moment i think i'll start with PHP ... the reason i put ASP is 'casue it seems to be used in business quite a bit. i guess that equals what kevincar said about intranet....

thanks guys, anyone know of any good beginer info on PHP ....hrm i seem to remeber their being a tut on gurusnetwork?

http://www.php.net/tut.php
http://www.php.net/manual/en/

Holy shit!! I never 'really' looked as PHP before. Gad dam, this is so cool! I can do some simple stuff with Perl like mail forms through to simple ubb stuff with flat file databases and have maintained sites with Perl/SQL databases before but shit dam. This is amazing!

I know Perl's extreamly powerful but I'm to stupid to code anything of 'real' value with it. And working with perl on a Win 98 platform sucks big time. So all I use it for is CGI. If I was an NT admin then I may have some use for it (read some articles on the advantages of Perl for NT server admins a while back) but as far as I can tell I'll be able to do all the stuff I used to do in Perl with PHP and get less headaches per week! All good!

There's all these cool functions and stuff that I've always thought would work well in an internet based language and their all their! It's like christmas in July!

Looks like I'll be up late tonight

Anyway... I'll stop dribbling now...

Thanks guys.

everybody needs a swamp bear

actually there are 3 threads about which serverside language to learn, and there have been several dozens about it. its always the same thing.

its a personal choice. the power is equal for all of them

potential(php)=potential(asp)=potential(perl)=potential(cf)=...