I consider myself a pretty experienced developer using ASP and ASP.NET, however looking at the marketplace on this forum and many of the freelance site it appears that a lot of clients want to use PHP. Should I attempt to learn (how easy/difficult is it), or should I stick with my what I'm best at. Thanks

It's always going to be good to have a broad horizon of skills. You say you are a "pretty experienced asp developer". Are you at the top of the game as far as ASP goes? Is there still more you can learn? If there is more you can learn. learn it. The move onto PHP. If you feel you can't progress any further with ASP learn PHP.

 

Personally I found PHP a piece of cake to learn!

I am a Zend Certified PHP programmer and there is so much more I learn every day!

 

I think for any programmer it's a good idea to have knowledge of a few languages.

 

I also know C# at an intermediate level and a little VB.

Stick with ASP.net. Most of my clients couldn't give a toss what the site is written in, That's up to the developer.

Indeed - most of the time it's really up to you as a developer, however, learning how to do some things in PHP wouldn't hurt.

 

Particularly if you come accross a client whos application is written in PHP. The last thing you want is to have to say... "I can't do that".

PHP for the WIN! i think it is an amazing language and easy to learn.

I think it depends on the market really. Lots of companies are turning to open source in this economic climate - and PHP is a very popular language (if somewhat rough around the edges). It's not hard to learn, and if you've learnt one server side language, you've broken the back of the problem already - PHP makes things dead easy for you. Another long term one to think about is Python - I reckon that'll go ballistic in the next 5 years.

i choose asp or php depending on the client requirements ... and what sort of hosting they are going to use..

 

i find most of mine want linux servers as they are generally cheaper, so i would use php, but some prefer windoze servers so would code in asp/.net

Here's one vote for ASP.

PHP is much more widely used than ASP or .NET!

PHP is much more widely used than ASP or .NET!

 

Thats debatable.....Active Server Pages(ASP) isn't used that much today, but ASP.NET is huge and i would say on the same level as PHP. Thats why i am learning both

They are both amazing languages and you should definitely learn both of them if you have time.

 

But maybe PHP will be better as it can run on both Windows and Linux servers and is open source with lot's of tutorials and help on the internet for if you get stuck.

Thats debatable.....Active Server Pages(ASP) isn't used that much today, but ASP.NET is huge and i would say on the same level as PHP. Thats why i am learning both

 

Put it this way - what ever hosting you get, PHP is always on it - this isn't the case with .net

I think it depends on the market really. Lots of companies are turning to open source in this economic climate - and PHP is a very popular language (if somewhat rough around the edges). It's not hard to learn, and if you've learnt one server side language, you've broken the back of the problem already - PHP makes things dead easy for you. Another long term one to think about is Python - I reckon that'll go ballistic in the next 5 years.

 

Rough around the edges?

 

My dear fellow member - PHP is written in C. It is by no means rough around the edges.

 

Infact, I would be as so bold as to say that PHP is twice as stable as any .NET language.

As a Linux user I generally go with open source (or free) languages that are cross-platform. In regard to PHP being more popular then ASP.NET/ASP? It is, by far, and I would guess ASP.NET falls behind Java and Python too.

 

PHP is a great language for beginners and experts alike. At the bottom of things it's free and is usually installed on the most popular web server (Apache). Due to the general nature of open source, hosting is generally cheap too with minimum fuss in terms of licensing. It's quick, free (or cheap) and easy to get going. Accessibility is important and you don't need Windows "Super Dooper Pro Edition" to install an Apache server or PHP.

 

Onto the language itself. PHP takes the structure and syntax of many great languages like C and Java. It's also loosely typed which for non-programmers makes things a lot easier and easier going but also retaining the advanced features a programmer would want. It excels as it's focused solely on the web unlike other languages like Perl (which aren't focused exclusively for the web), has a crap load of built in functions and due to it being popular and free the support and information on the web is phenomenal (which is important). If you're not a programmer and become advanced with PHP you've learnt a lot of general techniques such as functions, classes, data types, OOP etc which will make the transition to other languages a lot easier.

 

Personally I would start with PHP. Once comfortable with it you'll feel comfortable in other languages and understand the basic process of scripting and programming and principles of the web. The more you learn the better though and you should always be looking to expand your knowledge and skillset. I try and learn at least one new language a year.

Hi,

 

What Gibbs said its really true, I'm also studing PHP and I'm loving it.

Go On .

 

Best Regards,

Flex

You should continue your career with PHP to understand how is web development. You can learn .NET quickly after that

The people who say PHP (or any programming langauage) is amazing really do need to open the door and get out a little more often.

 

Niagra Falls is Amazing. Seeing a volcano errupt is amazing.

 

PHP is not amazing. Its a language.

 

Sorry to put that into perspective.

 

But hey this forum is realllllyyy ammmazzzzzing

 

Hi

I'm just learning php to make dynamic websites but have found that most site I go on are using ASP which one is better?

And what is a Linux server?

C# is awesome! Just my opinion.