Wind in the Wires

programming arrogance is still arrogance. and silly arrogance at that. come on guys, asp is just another tool.

dang, I must be a geek.

*stepping to the pulpit, hoping to dodge all flying objects*

Yes asp is just another tool, and yes it is occasionally the best tool for the job. But for small business and personal websites what makes one *tool* better than the other? Are tools chosen because of preference (you like the feature set of tool A better than tool B), by necessity (your environment will only support tool A, or you only know tool A), or by some other virtue which is deemed valuable?

I personally use php for several reasons. I like the syntax better than asp (asp seemed too wordy), I liked the cheaper hosting plans that supported php (because I'm cheap), I liked the cross-platform coding facter (because I could develop on my winxp machine under a similar environment than that of the live server). I also use php because of mysql. I didn't know of any widely supported databases for asp that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg (or more... my limbs aren't really worth that much), and I couldn't bring myself to use access (which for the sake of argument we'll assume that access is a legit database... despite my thoughts).

and bob, yes you are a geek.

crap, that's what I was afraid of. maybe someday I'll be cured of this affliction.

anyway, firstly, and by far most importantly, access is NOT a legit DB, unless you're content with 40 concurrent users. yikes.

and I'm glad your chosen platform suits your niche. enjoy.

Microsoft Access is going away. MSDE is a server-driven database that is completely free of charge - kind of a SQL Server Lite. Of course, SQL Server Express is coming out this summer, so you might want to hold off for that.

ASP has no syntax. You might be thinking of VBScript, which is a popular language in which to write ASP and what most of the code samples are in, etc. However, it can also be written in server-side JavaScript, which gives you back your curly braces and semicolons. Having said that, many people prefer VB because of the "wordiness." I have to admit, seeing the phrase "End Sub" is a lot easier to determining end of scope than counting closing curly braces, even though I'm more of a curly brace and semicolon kind of guy.

ASP.NET of course can be written in a large variety of languages, including C++ (PHP's mother language) and C#, both of which give you that same syntax. Python can also be used, if you're into that.

Personally, I code in PHP, ASP, and ASP.NET because they all run best in their specific environments, and client needs can easily dictate those environments, not to mention pre-existing applications. Are we running Apache server on a Linux box with PostgreSQL as the back end? PHP is the obvious choice, especially since the Zend engine allows for compiling. Are we running IIS and SQL Server? PHP probably isn't our best choice.

David Blowie already got "all classicaly trained". Check out his first album (self-titled).

Life is good working with the man, yessir. Bill Gates is my sugar daddy!

No, seriously, life is good if you can develop on the latest MS platforms in a homogenous environment. Life is probably good in other environments too, but I've been pleasantly surprised about MS while learning in this new space.

And I'm tickled, Josiah, that you started a language war on your blog. Further, it's time you admit to all that this whole "I love Ann Coulter" thing is really just a suck-up to the RiverCity Company so that you can begin a second career as an urban planner. It's okay, no one will be mad. Though Johnson might want to come a'knockin' on your house to search for "conflicts of interest". Yikes.

I'm still trying to figure out if "David Blowie" is an insult or a typo.

definitely a typo. thanks for pointing it out. I think this is the first time i've smiled all day.