Preserved Topic: Future of ASP

I just returned from an ASP/HTML interview and it went well. I do not have too much experience with programming ASP and was wondering what your opinion is of ASP (vs. PHP, Perl) and what type of future does it have in store. This company is willing to teach me- but its a small company (15 people).

Just curious- Obviously I do not want to leave my secure job for a position in a smaller company (less secure). I should hear back from them at the end of the week. . .

Thanks.
Chris

Well, ASP is tied up pretty tightly with Microsoft, so I would believe its longgevity rests with Microsoft.

Many of the Engineers and Programs that I talk with from my area don't believe MicroSoft will last another 10 years in the market place, they could be wrong but you never know, their all betting the Sun and the *nix movement will bulldoze right through.

On the other hand you have the actuall ASP language set which is normally build on VBScript, which I find to be a fairly awful language. The structure and grammar is by far not the easiest to read or to code. It is really a pain in the ass to work with. Some people love it, I just think that those people failed to work with PHP.

thanks warmage- just the kind of feedback I was looking for. Yeah- I figured ASP is tied in with Microsoft and rests on the company future. But then again- I could learn the fundamentals of programming thru ASP, then apply those same techniques later on down the road with PHP, Perl.

Do you agree with that?

Thanks.
CRO8

the old asp / vbscript technology will probably become redundant in a few years as .net increases its foothold

if the new company is eventually willing to give you exposure to this newer technology (as I imagine they will have to in time) then by all means go for it - the future of asp.net looks resonably secure with ports to *nix in the pipeline and support for multiple languages including perl or whatever you feel comfortable developing in.

a company of only 15 people should give you exposure to a whole bunch of other technologies as well, so it might be worth taking them up on their offer irregardless of your initial misgivings about the longevity of asp in its current form

good luck
I:.

Thanks SI- advice is much apprecited. I agree- any company using technology that may be obsolete in a few years should be ontop of considering other options- hopefully they have a plan . . . of possibly substituting ASP wth another language.

I am experiencing the usual reservations about a new job in a different industry. I really have an interest in programming-especially linking a website to a database. Pretty cool. I can still keep a foot in the design world by continuing to add to my online portfolio- flash, Photoshop, etc. - - - familiar ground.

I will keep ya'll posted with what happens.

Thanks.
CRO8

[This message has been edited by CRO8 (edited 07-24-2002).]

ASP is dead or dying. ASP.NET is where MS is heading. it places them more squarely in line with J2EE. the best advance is in treating everything like an object. a page is now self-aware as a whole rather than a series of procedural function calls.

my company is taking off with both ASP.NET and J2EE. they will essentially be interchangeable with the increased use of SOAP, etc. the more important question you should ask yourself is if you're getting experience with the concepts at the core of both of these environments. i think you should be learning more about system architecture/design than about specific syntax of any one language.

quote:

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the more important question you should ask yourself is if you're getting experience with the concepts at the core of both of these environments. i think you should be learning more about system architecture/design than about specific syntax of any one language.

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I agree.

Thanks.

[This message has been edited by CRO8 (edited 07-25-2002).]

ASP as it is now will not give you the fundamentals you will need to move on. That is the main problem I have with it. With most scripting languages like Perl, PHP and ASP you do not need to know a lot to work with those languages. It is very simple very basic. You could and would spend almost as much time learning from scratch as you would jumping from one language to the next.

As with any language you work in you will need to know the basics. The "Art of Computer Programming" series would be the best bet at this. Like halford said it is not in the syntax.

thanks- I understand and will check out the book series Warmage recommends.

Thanks.
CRO8

heh heh. Just found out I did not get the job but they said they are a growing company and I am at the top of their list. Apparently they hired someone with ASP experience. Anyways-thanks for your feedback!

Thanks.
CRO8