ASP.NET vs PHP - According to MSDN

I found a link to this article on Zend.com's homepage (which seemed a bit odd, as the content of the article compares ASP.NET vs PHP, and speaks unfavorably towards the latter)...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...phpvsaspnet.asp

Some of the comparisons are interesting... though, it seems that most of the OOP issues raised are addressed by PHP5.

Another point of interest (for me, anyway) was how they reviewed the process by which PHP communicates w/ MySQL (and other ODBC db's). This part was interesting, as I've read other 'language x' vs. PHP comparisons, and the MySQL functions are always raised as part of the 'downside' of PHP... is this really such a big problem w/ PHP? I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts on the subject.

(Here's a PHP vs. CFML article on Macromedia's site - their comparisons are almost laughable, but the aforementioned SQL connect issue is present here, too: http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx...s/php_cfmx.html )

Well I read up until this 'At the heart of PHP 4.0 is the Zend Engine' in that article and then scrolled to the bottom.

A) They are comparing their latest and greatest against an older version of PHP, if you are going to do a comparison atleast make it fair.

B) The fact that during the comparison between opening connections to MySQL, they open a perfect connection, loop through it using mysql_fetch_array which should really be a _row in the example they used. And then they close it using a completely different database platform MSQL. Makes me very reluctant to beleive they actually tested any of their code

C) ASP.net connections are really not that easy, especially with vB it's a pain in the you know where.

D) They mock the naming conventions of PHP and state that it is very difficult to find the right function for the job, yeah sometimes it is, but in comparison the PHP Documentation is a 100% better than ASP.net I spent literally hours searching a couple of weeks ago when I got into my first ASP.net project. I could have had the project done in the time it took me to find the info I needed had I been using PHP or Perl.

E) Never trust anything Microsoft publish.

F) Average rating:
2 out of 9

801 people have rated this page


Speaks for itself really, but now you know why there is a link from Zend to it and where all those Vote's came from, PHP Developers. Ooops make that 802!

Heya Silk,

Congrats on the mod status dawg.

Yeah, I also noticed they failed to mention that PHP5 addresses the issues w/ OOP, and they also completely ignored the experimental .NET extensions to PHP...

Documentation is a huge issue - does their ASP.NET IDE provide links to a website for built-in classes or functions, like Zend's Studio does for PHP? What about their error messages - do these provide links to online documentation, like PHP 4.3.1's error msgs do?

Its funny - for all of MS' pitch about web integration, Zend is doing a much better job integrating the PHP engine and IDE to the web than MS is...

Of course they are going to say that there product is the best, what else would you expect? They are hardly liable to admit that any of their products is rubbish (untill they release a new version and then they admit what everyone was saying about it).

Well, obviously MS will defend their own products... it just struck me as odd that Zend would have a link to MS' marketing propaganda on their homepage, thats all.

Well have you seen this forum at all?

http://www.asp.net/Forums/ShowForum...ex=1&ForumID=44

Migrating from PHP to ASP.Net

I was surfing the headlines and saw that Windows 2003 was spanking Linux in file serving as well.

Microsoft paid for the test and instructed the testers on how to configure the Windows machine so this may have affected the outcome.

http://www.linuxworld.com/2003/0509.barr.html

I'm confused. If they made it fair, how would they every expect to win?

Well to give it a good run I think they should test it against FreeBSD Unix. I would expect Unix to kick Windows 2003. Its a lot faster and more efficient than Linux in what I have seen

I hate trolls, but I got a right mind to spend some time each day filling this forum w/ pro-PHP propaganda...

Have you looked through this? Over half of the posts basically follow this paradigm: "how do you do this thing which is totally easy and intuitive in PHP in ASP.NET? " ... with the responses from the ASP.NET goons showing just what a pain in the arse ARSE.NET really is, by their own answers.

Let's see here... ASP.NET... a platform in which you can use pretty much any (Microsoft) language to build web applications. Which basically means you can use Visual Basic.NET or Visual C++. Let's see here.... building web applications with the C++ language, or a language that is directly descended from the procedural nightmare that is BASIC... hmmm, yes, those seem like two logical choices for web development to me

I never understood ASP... why the hell would someone (management monkeysuits not withstanding) CHOOSE to write a web application in something that not only descended directly from BASIC (a language that was never meant to do more than teach an introduction to programming, which is something that Pascal eventually took over at that) but also uses a lot of the 30 year old BASIC constructs and theory??? I couldn't even write clear, competent, and functional COMMAND LINE programs with that crap without pulling my hair out, I can't imagine how stupid (or crazy) you'd have to be to actually WANT to try and make a web app with it... oig... it seems to me sometimes that, while developers point a lot of fingers at end users and laugh, we might want to consider that one digit that's pointing back at us, because we sure don't always shine a whole lot of glory on ourselves....

Well I used to be an ASP programmer. I knew ASP and sort of knew Perl. I hated Perl with a passion and thought it really sucked. I also thought ASP rocked and really liked using it as a programming language.

This all got derailed though in my first web development job. Went in there and was given a Linux server to host things on. I did know a bit about Linux system admin so I set it all up and used Perl to make first project. Then someone mentioned PHP and I tried it and loved it. Was quite a bit like ASP but with C style syntax that I liked.

If I hadn't taken that web job I would most likely be using .NET now and be MS only programmer.

Eh, Perl is just too big a gun for some people to enjoy. I personally like the level of complication and power that it provides, but, if you don't like playing with (occasionally pointless levels of) obscene power, then PHP is definitely the way to go for web stuff. You probably wouldn't like raw C either (it's a pain in the butt if you've never tried it - you think Perl gives you a lot of rope to make a knoose....).

VB is just... well... humorous. I just think it's funny that MS has embraced this language that is, as admitted by the creators, meant only to be used as an intro teaching tool. Microsoft tries to push it like it was some powerhouse language. To really sum up the obnoxious level of complication of that language, just take a look at the VB.NET book I have that weighs in at 1600 pages vs. the Programming Perl book I have that weighs in at 700. Heck, include the Perl/Tk book in that and it still only tops out at 1400 - 1500. And Perl can do about 5x as much as VB can... weird....

And, gimme a break Microsoft.... PHP vs. ASP.NET? That's like pitting a ballet dancer (very very flexible) against Fat Albert (not.. uh.. very flexible at all) at a dance competition.... not much of a match-up. OK OK... my analogies suck...

Well I have used Perl recently since I had need of its power. It is an awesome language, I will give it that, but I can code faster in PHP. I don't know C but do want to learn it later, would be good to add it to my skills.

I, too, think its funny that MS has embraced BASIC so much, its just silly really. You would think they would have gone with a real language. I use VB all the time and think its best described as a joke. VisualBasic It is not a commercial development tool. C# is a joke too, they have completely ruined the C language with this horrid mutation of it.