PHP and other languages

1. PHP vs. ASP?

ASP is not really a language in itself, it’s an acronym for Active Server Pages, the actual language used to program ASP with is Visual Basic Script or JScript. The biggest drawback of ASP is that it’s a proprietary system that is natively used only on Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS). This limits it’s availability to Win32 based servers. There are a couple of projects in the works that allows ASP to run in other environments and webservers: InstantASP from Halcyon (commercial), Chili!Soft ASP from Chili!Soft (commercial) and OpenASP from ActiveScripting.org (free). ASP is said to be a slower and more cumbersome language than PHP, less stable as well. Some of the pros of ASP is that since it primarily uses VBScript it’s relatively easy to pick up the language if you’re already know how to program in Visual Basic. ASP support is also enabled by default in the IIS server making it easy to get up and running. The components built in ASP are really limited, so if you need to use “advanced” features like interacting with FTP servers, you need to buy additional components.

2. Is there an ASP to PHP converter?

Yes, the server-side asp2php is the one most often referred to as well as this client-side option.

3. PHP vs. Cold Fusion?

PHP is commonly said to be faster and more efficient for complex programming tasks and trying out new ideas. PHP is generally referred to as more stable and less resource intensive as well. Cold Fusion has better error handling, database abstraction and date parsing although database abstraction is addressed in PHP 4. Another thing that is listed as one of Cold Fusion’s strengths is its excellent search engine, but it has been mentioned that a search engine is not something that should be included in a web scripting language. PHP runs on almost every platform there is; Cold Fusion is only available on Win32, Solaris, Linux and HP/UX. Cold Fusion has a good IDE and is generally easier to get started with, whereas PHP initially requires more programming knowledge. Cold Fusion is designed with non-programmers in mind, while PHP is focused on programmers.

A great summary by Michael J Sheldon on this topic has been posted to the PHP mailing list. A copy can be found here.

4. PHP vs. Perl?

The biggest advantage of PHP over Perl is that PHP was designed for scripting for the web where Perl was designed to do a lot more and can because of this get very complicated. The flexibility / complexity of Perl makes it easier to write code that another author / coder has a hard time reading. PHP has a less confusing and stricter format without losing flexibility. PHP is easier to integrate into existing HTML than Perl. PHP has pretty much all the ‘good’ functionality of Perl: constructs, syntax and so on, without making it as complicated as Perl can be. Perl is a very tried and true language, it’s been around since the late eighties, but PHP is maturing very quickly.

Selecting the Best Web Design Language for Your Project

If you’d like to create and publish your own web site on the Internet, your first step should be to decide what type of web site you would like to create and what web design language you would like to use.

Although there are several web design languages to choose from, make sure you take some time to research your options to ensure you’re making the best choice for your project.

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

The easiest and most popular web design language is Hypertext Markup Language, better known as HTML. This language is so simple you can type the syntax into a text editor, such as Notepad, save it with an .html extension and instantly have a web page.

You can learn more about HTML here:
http://www.w3schools.com/html/

Although HTML will enable you to create simple web sites, if you want something more dynamic, you’ll need to look into using other languages:

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP)

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, better known as PHP, is a highly popular, server-side scripting language that can be embedded directly into HTML coding.

PHP can do anything that CGI (Common Gateway Interface) can do, such as process form data and auto generate dynamic content. However, PHP can do much more. It can be used on all major operating systems and supports most web servers.

PHP’s main focus is development for the web, so it has a quick development time and can solve scenarios much quicker than some of the other web design languages.

You can learn more about PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor here:
http://www.php.net/

ColdFusion

ColdFusion, developed by Macromedia, is used to build and serve web pages. It consists of ColdFusion Studio, which is used to create web pages, and ColdFusion Server, which is used to display the web pages.

One of the best features of ColdFusion is the ability to create web pages ‘on the fly’ from content stored within a database.

For example, a variety of content can be placed within a database as ‘pieces of content.’ When a user types in the web address to retrieve the web page, ColdFusion dynamically develops the pages, from the ‘pieces of content,’ as they are served.

Although it is very reliable, ColdFusion may be better suited for larger companies rather than individuals, as it is fairly expensive.

You can learn more about ColdFusion here:
http://macromedia.com/support/coldfusion/tutorial_index.html

Java Server Pages (JSP)

Java Server Pages, also known as JSP, is a web design language developed by Sun Microsystems. It is used to control web page content via servlets, which are little programs that run on a web server. These servlets modify the web page on the server prior to it being displayed within a web browser.

The JSP technology enables you to combine regular, static HTML with dynamically generated HTML.

You can learn more about Java Server Pages here:
http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/docs.html

Active Server Pages (ASP)

Active Server Pages, also known as ASP, is Microsoft’s solution to dynamic, interactive web pages.

Active Server Pages are web pages that contain scripts in addition to the standard HTML tags. These scripts are processed prior to a web page being displayed within a web browser.

Unlike standard HTML pages that have an .html or .htm extension, Active Server Pages have an .asp extension.

An advantage of ASP is that it is language-independent and therefore is easy to use across all platforms and applications. It is very flexible and powerful, yet some people don’t like it merely because it is a Microsoft product.

You can learn more about Active Server Pages here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnasp/html/asptutorial.asp

Conclusion

With so many different web design languages to choose from, which is the best language for your project? That will depend on your web site needs and how much time and/or money you’re willing to invest.

If you want a simple web site with text and images, HTML is definitely the way to go. Not only is it easy to learn, but there are also many HTML editors available online that will write the code for you.

Although HTML is usually the right choice for most, if you’d like your web site to be dynamic, you will need to research some of the other languages until you find the best solution for your project.

Take your time and do your homework before you begin. If you don’t feel confident in your ability to create your own web site, hire a professional. It will save you a lot of time and trouble in the long run.

Copyright © Shelley Lowery 2005

Shelley Lowery is the publisher of Etips. To receive your free subscription & a copy of Shelley’s popular ebooks, ‘Killer Internet Marketing Strategies,’ and ‘Work from Home: A Complete Guide to Developing a Successful Internet Business from Home,’ send an email to etips_publication@web-source.net or visit http://www.web-source.net.

Shelley is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design Mastery. http://www.webdesignmastery.com. Visit the Web Design Mastery site to download your free chapters (77 pages)!

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