hey guys, been reading a few threads, site seems interesting so ijoined.

I actually don't develop in PHP. I am a .net guy working with asp.net for web and windows applications.

I have a question for you php people? why use php? its a good language I agree (hence me lurking around the forum) but why not .net?

I agree .net has a harder learning curve but really if you alreadt have a PHP background then the transition shouldn't be hard?

.Net is free just like PHP to download? the visual studio IDE gives you more features then all your features combined, including file search, virtual server and intellisense.

Is it because P.HP is open source (is it even?) And if it is then how many of you actually hit the source?

.net has a much much larger framework, it's got a bigger library then PHP, most products will always give a SDK for .net rather then PHP (especially SDK's for gadgets and electronics).

PHP code is line interpreted at run time, while .net is compiled into MSIL, or machine code. Machine code will always run faster then php. Infact theres a project outthere on the net which allows "php.net" and benchmarks show up to a 10 - 20x speed increase..

Please note I am not here to bash. I think PHP is an amazing language, and I used to do php in the php4 days lol.

I wouldn't say I am a noob programmer as well.

I just wanna know what the big deal is over this php thing.

Why PHP? Well, it's easier to code in, and to me you can code less than what you code in ASP/JSP.

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PHP is made for coding websites, .net for making computer apps, they're two completly different things, right? And BTW I hate microsoft and love open source projects so I prefer PHP, Ruby and Python above .net.

I hate Microsoft too, hell they made a crappy Browser ( IE ), cause nothing ever works in it. >.< I make .NET applications, but PHP is my 1# Web Programming ever! And I try java/python sometimes. Not really needed for except small packages.

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Hi masfenix, welcome to TalkPHP

I'm a .Net developer in my day job (C++/C#, mostly Winform stuff, but occasionally some ASP) so can understand where you're coming from.

I believe that the sucess of PHP is based on 4 major factors:

(I should point out that these 4 points are based on 5 years ago with the original ASP, not ASP.Net)

1. Open Source - people do love their free and open source programs This certainly helped with early PHP adoption. Until recent years (VS Express), you had to pay good money (and for some, a lot of money) for Visual Studio if you wanted a full-featured IDE for ASP (as far as I know, correct me if I'm mistaken and MS had a free ASP IDE availavle).
   
2. Linux Hosting - traditionally, Linux shared hosting has been cheaper than Windows hosting. Whilst this isn't the case nowadays, 5 years ago, Windows hosting would cost more due to the Windows Server licencing costs. This closely ties in with point 1, people do love to save money There where various attempts to get ASP code running on Linux but none of them where particularly great.
   
3. Anti-Microsoft - As sjaq and Orc mentioned above, they don't care for Microsoft as a company and Microsoft products. Unfortunately, this view is shared by a lot of other people which has helped push PHP.
   
4. Beginner Friendly - PHP has always been thought of as having a low entry requirement for beginners (which in some cases, turned out to be a bad thing), where as ASP always had the stigma that it was hard to learn.

All these points helped PHP's early sucess as a web scripting language, particularly in recent years as the Open Source "movement" took off.

Saying that, PHP isn't quite the king of web scripting languages that a lot of people think it is ASP.Net is the language of choice in the corporate market. In my experiance, corporates know and trust Microsoft as they run their business on the Microsoft platform so they naturally choose ASP.Net over PHP/Ruby/JSP/etc when moving to the web.

As for my own personal opinion, I use ASP.Net in my day job (not a huge amount I must admit, but occasionally we get to play with it), and PHP as a "hobby" (programming as a hobby - I need to get out more ) so I can't really say that I favour one over the other. At the end of the day, I'll use whatever language is right for the job at hand - anything to make my life easier

Alan

Alan, programming is a hobby and a job of mine, so should I get out more too? xD

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In a way its like saying which do you prefer Internet Explorer or FireFox. FF came along and people loved it i guess its the same for PHP. Just a matter of taste really . I find that PHP is alot like C++ anyway give or take . I also .NET a lot at Uni.

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hey guys,
thanks for the replies, interesting.

and oh man, I don't wanna have the IE vs FF talk. I just did that on another forum. I am an experienced programmer, but i dont know how to code psd's into html therefore i could care less about the standards support :P.

Just to clear a few things up. Yes, the one downside for .net is that its expensive to code on. windows servers are generally more expensive.

Oh and the amount of code you write in .net is considerbly LESS then PHP. :)


.Net is just a framework. You can use the framework to either create applications, console applicaations, or web applications.
the web part of it is called ASP.NET. Both the web/windows can be coded in c# or vb, or a mix of both :)

Only thing i do not understand is are you coming on here to convince people not to use PHP and use ASP? . Its like asking someone why they don't believe in god like myself.

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Hi masfenix,

.Net and VS are free? Since when?

He might be referring to the Express version, which still is just a trial version.

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Ahhh, that could be. And would answer his own question - PHP is free to use, distribute and sell since it is open source. A "commercial" version of VS with SQL Server can still cost a pretty penny. I love .Net, but why bother using it on a small scale project when you can save the client money or even make some more for yourself with a freely available toolset?

For reference, the Visual Studio Express editions aren't trials You can compile / build / release applications with no limitiations.

Alan

Alan, have they opened up the TOS with regard to the Express versions? I was under the impression that it was for learning purposes only and one was not allowed to use Express for commercial applications? If that is no longer the case, that's fabulous!

Hi,

Yep, the licence has no restrictions on use

From the Visual Studio Express FAQ:

Q. Can I use Express Editions for commercial use?
A. Yes, there are no licensing restrictions for applications built using Visual Studio Express Editions.

Alan

Very nice, thanks! I'll give 2008 a try now. :)

I mainly use PHP because it was the first thing I came across. I had a buddy of mine tell me to use it when I was looking for something more challenging than HTML and CSS. I was thinking about perl or python, but he said get into php. So, I got into PHP, XML, Javascript, and a little ruby. Now I want to learn ASP.net for those rare occasions when I work on a clients server and it is windows.

I can't stay with one single language... It's so hard...

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I feel better hating IE.