I ask myself this often - I've been using it for well over a decade, and still use ASP to build most of my sites - why? I consider it rock solid, mature, and something I'm very confortable with. And although I don't see support for it going away, I'm constantly question myself what direction to go in next...

My two obvious choices are PHP or ASP.Net - I've done some PHP, and even less ASP.Net. That said, I'm not truly fond of either.

I feel like I'm at a career changing point in my life - and not sure what direction to turn in. Whatever way my compass points, I want to be passionate about it and become an expert.

Does anyone have any similar stories to share, advice, or thoughts?

Thanks for listening...

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Member Avatar for LastMitch

My two obvious choices are PHP or ASP.Net - I've done some PHP, and even less ASP.Net. That said, I'm not truly fond of either.

If you don't like PHP or ASP.Net.

Then learn Ruby Rail or C# (using django framework)

I prefer PHP/OOP over basic PHP

LastMitch,

I've only done some simply basic PHP - what is your advice for learning PHP/OOP? For designing websites, do you work from scratch, or do you use a CMS like WordPress or Drupal?

Member Avatar for LastMitch

I've only done some simply basic PHP - what is your advice for learning PHP/OOP? For designing websites, do you work from scratch, or do you use a CMS like WordPress or Drupal?

It's programming kinda similiar to C++ or java codes. I don't used much CMS.

I try these 2:

http://textpattern.com/

http://www.getsymphony.com/

Out of those 2. Symphony is very easy to used. If you download it and upload it your server and sign in to the admin and it looks very simple. So designing a template base on that looks very simple.

For design wise you can look at this Daniweb. Dani used Codeigniter framework to run Daniweb now. As you can see you can't really tell unless someone mention it.

You can look at these PHP framework:

http://ellislab.com/codeigniter

http://framework.zend.com/

http://cakephp.org/

and companies used PHP framework to run their websites.

I like Yii framework because it's more flexible than codeigniter (it's just me)

http://www.yiiframework.com/

Most of these PHP frameworks you can create a web application by using OAuth and API and etc ..

I think Daniweb has a contest of using OAuth and API you can take a look at the code here (just to get an idea how it works):

http://www.daniweb.com/api/home

and apply it the PHP framework and see how it works and get idea why it's very demanding.

I didn't realized til now but there are 2 different type of PHP Developers.

1) PHP Web Developers
2) PHP Application Developers

PHP Web Developers are just developers doing CMS/Framework websites.
PHP Application Developers are specialized developers only doing web applications by using OAuth and API and etc ... and using Frameworks.

Both used basic PHP and PHP/OOP.

So I hope you got an idea regarding about PHP.

I'm more like a regular PHP Web Developers.

If you were to apply for a PHP developer posotion you have to read the description to know whether you doing one of those 2 above.

Hi,
I still occasionally have to maintain some classic ASP 3.0 sites I made the leap from ASP to ASP.Net in the early 2000's I've also done at bit of PHP as well I found it easier to learn VB.NET and go to making ASP.Net Pages with a VB.NET backend - I was also doing windows development at the time in my job so I started developing Apps with VB.Net too, once you are comfortable with VB.NET and ASP.NET then you can go on and learn C# and use that to make ASP.NET pages too. You should never limit yourself to one language or technology as you will be more appealing in the job market. You could also try php as well later on. I just think you'd probably make the jump to VB.NET with ASP.NET quicker due to you ASP (VBScript) background.

I think the only difference between PHP and PHP/OOP is the way you program. Both are still pieces of code mixed in with the HTML/jQuery/etc - correct me if I'm wrong. The OOP is just setting up the classes, etc - but you're still writing PHP code, just taking advantage of the OOP benefits. Whether you use frameworks is a preference thing - but I would think it's important to learn the straight PHP before learning any framework, no?

Believe it or not, I still support VB6 code too. So I've certainly got Classic ASP under my belt, basic PHP, MSSQL, I'm OK with MySQL, CSS, etc...

I agree I need to branch out - which is why I'm trying to advance my knowledge with PHP.

The whole .net thing would be great - but not sure my company would pay for Visual Studio - not to mention training - I could certainly do some myself - I need to research the options with Visual Studio - I know there are less costly, and even free versions, but not sure of what impact that would have when used in a production environment.

Nothing wrong with classic ASP. I have many sites that I maintain that are still running ASP. And they work just as good as anything new. The only issue I have is the time needed for some of the reporting sites, but this only on the larger ones.

Visual Studio Express Editions are free to use. With regards to differences between the free editions and paid for ones, I have a paid for copy of Visual Studio 2008 and I can build windows apps, web apps the whole shooting match. I've just downloaded Visual Studio 2012 Express for Desktop on to a VM I have for a play around with and this version is limited to desktop apps (clues in the name I suppose!) as far as production goes I can't see any difference. I think it is just that you need separate Express editions for what you are developing.

ASP, next step should be ASP.NET
syntax is similar

This is a good question... me to i have the some problem and i don't konw how to turn... at the end i'm learning MVC... razor is a powerfull technology and i advise you to go for it cause you can make views vary fast and you got plenty of tool online!!! MVC i believe is the most powerfull code manner you can apporach!!!

I hope to be usefull ^_^

Can someone explain what exactly MVC is? Isn't it something with .net? If so, what are all the differences?

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