PHP or ASP.Net? Make your bets ladies and gentlemen!

Before you read the article I would like to notice that it’s just a subjenctive opinion 🙂

So, what is PHP4 and ASP.Net? ASP.NET – is not a continuation of ASP, but is conceptually a new Microsoft technology, created as part of ideology. NET. Key stakeholders of .NET are scalability, cross-language interaction and shaky concept of “safe programming”.

PHP is conversely an open and free technology. Of course, it would be wrong to decipher PHP as Personal Home Page today, but we still can hear echoes from the past to these days. PHP is a scripting language, created exclusively for dynamic HTML output. This does not mean that it is impossible to create a major project, this means that a large project for PHP is expensive and difficult.

Programming in PHP does not require an expensive programming environment. It would be enough a textbook to learn how to write more or less workable scripts. But it doesn’t work with ASP.NET. There is nothing to do without Visual Studio, MSDN and sometimes access to internet. Most part of time anovice developer spends on studying MSDN. By that time when he have learnt heaped model of classes and all the necessary functions, Microsoft probably will come up with something new. But if you could learn it…

Using ASP.NET with Visual Studio it looks like to work with Delphi. The main languages in which applications written in ASP.NET are Visual Basic.NET and C #, respectively, are the heirs Visual Basic и Java/C++.Theoretically, under ASP.NET, you can write programs in any language for which there is a corresponding compiler. However, in practice, to create ASP.NETapplications are mainly used Visual Basic.NET and C #. “Native” environment of ASP.NET is IIS, running Windows. And yes, IIS is not known as the most stable web server, and Windows – is not the most stable operating system.

ASP.NET does not suit for small projects, and even more – for a few triggered groups that do not require precise control. The causes are many – from the high cost of the platform and ending with the complexity of the model classes.NET. When you collide with .Net you could think who could understand and learn it all? But then you understand – nobody. The credo of .Net is not to go to own business, write your module, learn its functions, know your place – this principle works fine in the collective .

In the ideology of Microsoft a programmer is a small cog in a well-established mechanism, singles have never been considered. Thus large projects accrue for .Net.

Thus there are no places for PHP programmers in such projects. Why? Because they will require a lot of coordinators, who must be paid. Most part of coordination in .Net takes over itself. PHP technology is fundamentally different from ASP.NET. PHP resembles a mixture of C and Perl with a little spice of Basic and Pascal. But ASP.Net looks like a classic

PHP4 trusts developers so much and there are no types, to declare variables is not necessary. PHP syntax is made for a quick and simple solution of common problems. The entire responsibility of dangerous stunts belongs to the programmer, what in particular leads to the widespread phenomenon, as the discovering of serious errors in the code one month after delivery of the project. The sphere of PHP is not large, it is small projects, which developed by either one specialist or a closely work group . As PHP is free the language has become an ideal choice for SMB or copyrights

Speed. Theoretically, ASP.NET must run faster as we deal with once compiled binary code, whereas PHP-scripts are re-processed each time. However, PHP work on IIS and Apache with a great load (although artificially induced) and always produces better results than ASP.NET even better then .ASP classic.The ligament PHP + MySQL + Apache works better and faster than ASP.NET + IIS + Microsoft SQL Server 2000.

Does it mean that ASP.NET is worse? I don’t think so. The speed is assured that all PHP applications run in a single address space, when ASP.NET checks and double checks the data repeatedly, keeping each application in a separate address space.The first pproach is faster but less reliable, the second – is more reliable, but there is a price. Unfortunately miracles do not happen L.

About work . Briefly describe the feeling to work with PHP it is constant process of debugging this is to the fact that the language contributes serious logical errors.

Even primitive typo (highlighted in red) leads to a logical error, which would not be in C# in principle. In general, there is not any declaration of variables in PHP, which is a big minus.

Also as a rule, updating version of PHP on the server is a headache for customers and programmers. Sometimes it is very difficult to find a mistake, especially if it appears only under certain circumstances, so that it could be never revealed to the delivery of the project. It is strength and weakness of PHP. When you plan in C# and write different classes , interfaces for collections to create a page in one fell swoop for ten minutes then. In PHP you could create the page several. Still every next page is created in 10 mins on ASP.Net when in PHP you would spend the same time again and again.. If you need to change smth on the page visually, you would need 5 mins in ASP.Net, but in PHP you would need look for and change HTML.

Thus small and medium projects are fate for small groups of PHP programmers; when medium and medium and large – the inheritance of large groups, using products of Microsoft, and giant projects share between HP, IBM, Sun, Oracle, and prices are too higher, but this is another story J

Thus in conclusion I would like to notice at the beginning pace of ASP.Net development should fall sharply, then grow steadily and eventually stop at a certain level, whereas the opposite is true in PHP.

Thank you for your attention!