I'm interested how many of you use .NET framework, how do you like it, what are it's pros and cons, and anything that comes accross your mind related to it? I'm using PHP/MySQL combination for now, but I'm considering move to ASP.NET. I've never even used ASP, so what do you recommend? ASP.NET or NOT ASP.NET? Or maybe to start with ASP?

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Let me explain the differences between the two.
ASP - Basically, you make a page with some VBScript or JavaScript/JScript in it. You have some new objects available to you, like the Request, Response, and Server objects. It's not a very high power environment, but may be sslightly easier to learn. Low performance - pages are interperted each time they are run (correct me if I'm wrong). Code can be found interspersed all over the page (aka Spaghetti code), making debugging much hared. The only objects accessible are any ActiveX objects installed on the server.
ASP.Net - Next generation of ASP. Has a totally different model, of which ASP developers might not understand. Pages are made into an application more than a Web page. You have controls, which act similar to controls in desktop programming, and event handlers, which react to events (like a button control being clicked, or a checkbox being checked) made by the controls that you put in the page. For the code you write, you have access to the entire .Net Framework class library. Pages are compiled only once before being run, and then shawdowed and cached. You can easily add your own classes to your application.

 

 

 

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I am experienced in using both ASP and ASP.NET with C# and vb.net.

For me, ASP is only a scripting language. When you need some advanced functionalities, such as file IO, you may need to make use of some COM components. COM generally need to be deployed in the server before it can be referenced. The structure of the code written by ASP generally cannot be well-organized since it is not a object oriented design. Many lines of code may sit in a one page. I think the structure of code of ASP is similar to PHP in some extend. However, ASP is already a little old.

ASP.NET is a framework that specifically designed for building web application. Together with Visual Studio.NET, it is very convenience to build a simple web site or even a enterprise web application. The library of .NET framework already provide a lot of useful functions which are essential for a web application, such as authentication, paging and grid controls, etc. The structure of the code of ASP.NET is generally more readable than that of ASP or PHP, since it is a OO design.

Therefore, no matter you want to build a simple web page or an enterprise web application, you still have to go with ASP.NET.

Actually, I am currently using ASP.NET 2.0 in my job. I am sure that using ASP.NET can save much of the development time than that of using ASP or PHP.

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Currently I'm working on PHP & MySQL platform. I'm planning to get a certification in ASP.NET and SQL Server.

Eventhough PHP & MySQL is more popular, the big corporates prefer to use ASP.NET technology to power their websites and web serivces. So learning ASP.NET is a good investment and you can get big corporate orders.

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