What is ASP and why should I learn it?

I already know PHP, but what is the difference (Adavnatages and disadvantages) between ASP and PHP? Would it be worth learning both?





I'm not learning either for any purpose, mostly to have something to toy around with in my spare time. But are there any other applications for ASP that I would use it and not PHP?

What is ASP and why should I learn it?
Personally, I think ASP stinks cause it looks ugly


PHP is the best!! YA!!!!!! sorry.





You can lean all about it at


http://www.w3schools.com/





I go there all the time.
Reply:Hi,





acctually ASP %26amp; PHP are similar target languages for server side scripting


- PHP has greater cababilities although you want need it ...





- Nowadays ASP.NET 2.0 is Great with the AJAX help it became more responsive to the user and it needs nothing in programming languages if you can write c# or vb it is enough.





- PHP is more like C and has no good editor as ASP (Visual Studio.NET 2005 Really it is great)





- both languages are good, both can do everything, both have AJAX (i think PHP have AJAX)





- if you are in deep in the php track don't change(although you can be good in asp if you know c# or vb in 2 monthes or more)





- if you are new with vb or c# w3schools is not good
Reply:well I use dreamweaver which supports both asp and php - but of course you need an appropriate windows server for it to run.





I tend to like both equally but definately think the syntax of asp is easier and I also prefer the way asp passes information between pages and handles strings. PHP I find to be more 'programmery'. Websites with online tutorials are fine but I do like to have a couple of books around for reference, they can be quite expensive so it's worth looking up ebay.





So I'd - if you have the time - learn up a bit of both and see what suits you best.
Reply:I'm not an expert programmer but I can tell that ASP is from microsoft and it's not open source, so means that it's more difficult to find free scripts to download or get help.





I think a lot of people think the asp is more professional than the free php, but instead php is very powerful language and I like it.
Reply:ASP stands for Active server pages, Microsoft's web development approach.


In order to fully understand it you have to really be into OOP (object oriented programming).





Now ASP vs PHP


PHP is open source (source code available, and free of charge), is cross platform and is very powerful(runs in most environments, windows, Linux, mac), its syntax looks a lot like C, as a matter of fact PHP is a derived of C.





ASP could be written in a variety of languages such as VB script, J#, C#, even in C++.


in order to run your asp pages you need to have IIS Internet information services.


It depends on what you want to do in order to determine which one is better, PHP falls weak in some areas where ASP is very good, same thing for ASP.