ASP = Active Server Pages.

You can always count on good ol’ Microsoft to try to do their own thing and launch their own great programming languages. Many websites and web based applications have gone away from .ASP in recent years and this can be seen simply by browsing the web. You will see a lot of the older websites that have shopping carts, or database applications use .ASP, which is fine in some cases but not always.

Unlike PHP / MYSQL, .ASP can be very difficult to work with and it is a lot more proprietary. A developer working with .ASP can easily set the website up to be difficult to be modified unless being modified by him or someone that knows how it was setup. There are just a few ways to really use the code and apply it to get the same result. Thus you get hostage held websites that only the original guy can work on.

Newer versions of .ASP / .NET are actually stable and are good for large websites and large web based applications. Smaller sites, and online stores have no real need for this language though and utilizing it would be forcing something that is not needed.

Though our company has people well rounded in .ASP / .NET we rarely apply it. Typically most applications can be done using PHP / MYSQL, and if security is a major concern, there are other languages out there that are considered first.

The bottom line is that microsoft continues to shove this language down the throats of programmers and people go to school specifically for it, but today it makes up a small percentage of what is utilized. We consider .ASP great for very specific and large projects, but potentially the worst solution to apply for common sites needing programming. I guess it is all in the opinion of the programmer though, just like the visual side of web design.

Categories: ASP / .NET