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PHP Programming Technology

PHP 5.0 Goes For Microsoft's ASP-dot-Net 478

Dozix007 writes "Uberhacker.Com reports : Zend Technologies quietly announced last week the final release of the open source PHP version 5. An interesting article reports the different strengths and weaknesses of ASP vs. PHP, and it becomes quite clear that with the release of PHP5, Zend has taken a shot at ASP's heart. The differences from PHP4 to 5 has created a clear advantage for the new preprocessor over Microsoft's proprietery ASP."
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PHP 5.0 Goes For Microsoft's ASP-dot-Net

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  • Taking the world (Score:4, Informative)

    by Karamchand ( 607798 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @10:50AM (#9737842)
    Also read this interesting article [kuro5hin.org] about PHP trying to take over the world. While a bit long it's really interesting and spawn quite insightful discussions.
  • Another article (Score:5, Informative)

    by jacoplane ( 78110 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @10:50AM (#9737850) Homepage Journal
    There was an article detailing the zend release [kuro5hin.org] on kuro5hin a few days ago. Quite a good read...
  • by angst7 ( 62954 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @10:53AM (#9737875) Homepage
    I've been using Zend Studio [zend.com] for about a year and a half now, and it's a great IDE for doing PHP stuff. It has code completetion, a nice debugger, good integrated documentation, and a host of other nice features. I run it on both my Windows and Linux boxen, and I absolutely love it.
  • ASP.NET inaccuracies (Score:5, Informative)

    by Burb ( 620144 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @11:05AM (#9738001)
    A few comments from an ASP.NET user:

    The article implies that CLR code is interpreted. All .NET runs compiled code, either JIT or AOT compiled. And there's an unsubstantiated remark about efficiency and "Long code paths". That looks like FUD to me, and without something substantial it seems suspicious.

  • by robertjw ( 728654 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @11:10AM (#9738054) Homepage
    So...I have to pay for features that I can get from the competitor for free, I have to pay (my employees) to insure that I am paying what I need to (for a product wich offers comparable services as the competitor) and I get to continually be pressed to upgrade and give them more money in licensing fees.

    Exactly. This is my biggest complaint against proprietary/commercial software, and the largest benefit of Open Source. As a sys admin I spend more time trying to figure out how many licenses we have, what is a legal use of a license, when we should upgrade, why we should upgrade, etc... Maintenance of the licenses cost us more than the license purchase itself.

    On top of that, old versions are usually unavailable for purchase after the new version is released, so we can't just purchase one license of a perfectly useful product for a new employee, we have to upgrade 30 people.

    For me, PHP vs ASP would be an obvious decision just because of the licensing. With PHP don't have to maintain the licenses. When I need to add a new server I wouldn't have to pay for an upgrade on the 10 existing servers.
  • Meinel (Score:3, Informative)

    by Scoria ( 264473 ) <{slashmail} {at} {initialized.org}> on Monday July 19, 2004 @11:11AM (#9738063) Homepage
    This Web site is actually managed by the infamous Carolyn Meinel [attrition.org], whose tendency to sensationalize is well documented. YMMV.
  • by Malc ( 1751 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @11:13AM (#9738080)
    MSDN. Well, if you don't have access the CD/DVD that comes out twice a year then there's always Microsoft's website.

    For community support, the Usenet is very good. Microsoft have a lot of groups on their servers (msnews.microsoft.com, or something like that), or you can use groups.google.com (microsoft.public.x.x.x), but that's a vastly inferior interface.
  • by Phiu-x ( 513322 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @11:17AM (#9738114)
    Need to find a good PHP Editor ?


    All of them (commercial,free,OSS) reviewed and classified: http://www.php-editors.com/ [php-editors.com]

    My personnal (and free) favorite : PHP EDIT: http://www.waterproof.fr/ [waterproof.fr]

    Need a PHP Debugger? DBG can do remote debugging and it can be integrated with the PHP Edit IDE, which is very nice : http://dd.cron.ru/dbg/ [dd.cron.ru]

    Now, who need Visual Studio? Almost every (php) editors now has code insight, integrated help, code completion, skins and whatnot. Hell, I sometimes go back to Notepad for quick fixes because its faster to fire up. But if you said PHP need an IDE, I think that you have not looked around very much.

    Now people start your eng-uh editors and go code some PHP!
  • by Bedouin X ( 254404 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @11:21AM (#9738161) Homepage
    I understand licensing issues but they just aren't as big a deal in ASP.NET as these posts (and the article) are making it out. To use ASP.NET you need a license for the server and that's it. Most add-on components are the same. There is also so much ASP.NET sample code out there that there isn't a lot that you can't figure out for free using the same methods that you would use for PHP code.

    Licensing issues get a little more complex when dealing with database servers and the like, but using Oracle isn't going to change that and it's not like you can't use MySQL with ASP.NET.

    I'm all for the advantages of OSS and PHP does have advantages, but let's not cloud the issue unnecessarily.
  • Re:Sorry no (Score:2, Informative)

    by mrtroy ( 640746 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @11:25AM (#9738196)

    I use php all the time, but php is more like the old asp than .Net. .Net is much richer in exeception handing and allows me to use any language I want. Php is great but not a stab at the heart of .Net. They have nothing like VStudio.

    Quote from article:

    PHP 5's major new achievements come in the area of its exception handling and a new object that introduces features that bring true OOP to PHP

    And my opinion added on: You do not need to use something like VStudio for anything smaller than enterprise sized ASP.net or PHP development. Textpad is more than adequate. I really dont see what u will gain by using some huge IDE for personal development.



  • by Ollierose ( 202763 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @11:27AM (#9738213)

    as far as ASP.Net is concerned, I'd recommend www.asp.net [asp.net] as a starter site, along with w3schools' asp.net section [w3schools.com] for a reference/overview.

    I'll add another namedrop for MSDN though, and point you to the .net Class Library reference [microsoft.com]

  • by mingot ( 665080 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @11:33AM (#9738289)
    That's all a matter of perspective I suppose. So I only need one license per server for ASP.NET and one license per server for any add-on components I want to use.

    No. You only need a license for the server itself. If you have a licensed installation of whatever running you can install ASP.NET. No need to purchase a license. Your developers can all install ASP.NET on their personal machines. No need to have anything but an OS to install it on.
  • by MattW ( 97290 ) <matt@ender.com> on Monday July 19, 2004 @11:42AM (#9738419) Homepage
    For me, one of the best things about working in PHP is the online documentation. We've got:

    (1) Thorough, beautifully organized, accurate documentation with minimal but effective examples.

    (2) Fast searching. php.net/[searchterm] - it doesn't get much easier to look up a function, short of having the docs built into the IDE (Zend)

    (3) User comments. I've contributed a few comments myself when I've run into sticky issues and then realized what was going on. And more than a few times, I've found little code snippets attached to the relevent functions that are good ways to use them. PHP and ASP, in my mind, are both tools for RAPID development and deployment. PHP is good at rapid; very good. The docs are a major reason. They make familiarizing with something like a new extension library very easy.
  • Completely off-topic but:

    Troll rhymes with Truth: "THE DRAFT IS COMING BACK, National Service Act of 2003 - 2004, S.89, H.R.163"

    That bill is dead in the water and has been for over 1.5 years [congress.gov].
    2/3/2003:
    Referred to the Subcommittee on Total Force.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 19, 2004 @11:53AM (#9738538)
    Well, I can't find any good links right now, but I've been reading the MS blogs for a few months (blogs.msdn.com) and I don't think there is a prefered .net language. Yes, c# was the original one, but the VB and C++ teams are also very actively developing new features. VB is getting a new namespace which makes lots of common taks very easy to do. C++ is getting an entirely new syntax (called C++/CLI) to make the .net integration even better. C# is getting generics, but so are the other languages.

    The choice between the big 3 languages is still left up to the developers, without MS pushing one over another.

    Going back on topic, VB.net might be more commonly used in ASP.net because the original ASP usually used VBScript.

  • by stgermh ( 587477 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @11:57AM (#9738581) Homepage
    There have been PHP plugins available for Eclipse for a while now. I have used TruStudio [xored.com] which is decent. Also check EclipsePlugins [eclipse-plugins.info].
  • by AstroDrabb ( 534369 ) * on Monday July 19, 2004 @12:17PM (#9738758)
    He is talking about ASP. Last time I checked ASP had no System.Graphics namespace. ASP.Net does, but not ASP. ASP pretty much sucks and requires you to write or buy code to supplement it. ASP.Net _finally_ has an acceptable framework, though it is still proprietary and will lock you into MS only solutions.
  • Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @12:18PM (#9738764)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by stgermh ( 587477 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @12:19PM (#9738777) Homepage
    If you're just doing ASP.NET and want a free IDE, Microsoft has WebMatrix [asp.net].
  • Way too much FUD (Score:5, Informative)

    by spideyct ( 250045 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @12:19PM (#9738783)
    Inaccuracies:
    • ASP.NET does all DB interaction through ODBC (it can, but it also has native drivers)
    • ASP.NET is slower/less efficient (pointless statement without evidence)
    • ASP.NET is more expensive than PHP (they are both freely downloads)
    • ASP.NET platform is more expensive (kinda. both work on Windows - PHP also works on more expensive Unices (so can we say PHP's platform is more expensive?) - PHP works on Linux, ASP.NET can kinda work on Linux if you count Mono)
    • ASP.NET is less secure because it requires IIS. Absolutely false! ASP.NET has no dependence on IIS. It just happens to be the default web server on Windows. You are free to write your own web server to host ASP.NET [microsoft.com]. An example to get you started [asp.net].
    • VB.NET is the "default" .NET language? That statement doesn't make any sense.

    The author completely ignored one of ASP.NET's greatest advantages - it is an abstraction from writing HTML (which I guess they think makes it inefficient, just like C is less efficient than machine language). When I write:
    TextBox t = new TextBox();
    t.Text = "Hello World";
    I do not know, nor care, what actual markup will be returned to the client. Before you start worrying that you need absolute control - consider the problem of delivering to multiple browsers/devices. ASP.NET will render different markup, depending on the browsers capabilities. When browsing from a PDA or phone, it will render appropriate markup. Does PHP do that?

  • by myspys ( 204685 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @12:37PM (#9738947) Homepage
    commercial as in free?

    http://www.php-accelerator.co.uk/ [php-accelerator.co.uk]

    yeah, it's not available for php5, yet
  • by kris ( 824 ) <kris-slashdot@koehntopp.de> on Monday July 19, 2004 @12:47PM (#9739034) Homepage
    PHP5 is available under the PHP license, version 3.0: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/php.php. This is a variant of the Apache license 1.1: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/apachepl.php. The Zend engine license 2.0 also is a variant of this license.

    I can't see why this is a problem for you - is the Apache license also problematic for you?

    The Apache license and the PHP/Zend licenses are incompatible with the GPL, but they do qualify as free licenses under the DFSG guidelines.
  • Something like PHPEclipse [phpeclipse.org]?
  • by stgermh ( 587477 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @12:54PM (#9739083) Homepage
    Check out Advanced PHP Programming [amazon.com]. Also O'Reilly's OnLAMP.com [onlamp.com] has a fairly good collection of tutorials.
  • by sonofagunn ( 659927 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @12:55PM (#9739088)
    ... if you are comparing Java programming to C# programming.

    VS.NET has the whole WYSINQWYG (What You See Is Not Quite What You Get) html/asp editor, but after pages get slightly complex, or you start taking advantage of User/Custom controls, the visual designer is more of a limitation than a benefit. The ability to create User controls is a really useful feature in ASP.NET.

    I currently use both in an enterprise/production environment. I much prefer the CVS/Refactoring/Auto-Compile/etc. features that Eclipse has over the few minor advantages of VS. VS.NET also has some annoying bugs, whereas the latest and greatest Eclipse has been rock solid for us.

    Also, at home I dabble in PHP and have good results using Eclipse with the PHP plugin from xored.com. It would still be nice to have a Visual HTML/PHP designer plugin (that was free).
  • by Rucker ( 39335 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @01:08PM (#9739180)
    ... I would greatly prefer to use C# over ASP.NET...

    You realize you can do ASP.NET in C#, right?
    From Microsoft's "Getting Started: Web Applications Technology Map" [microsoft.com]:
    ASP.NET makes full use of the .NET Framework... using any .NET-compatible language, including Visual Basic® .NET, C#, and JScript® .NET.
  • Huh? C# *is* ASP.NET (Score:3, Informative)

    by rd_syringe ( 793064 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @01:42PM (#9739505) Journal
    ASP.NET is any .NET language, or VB.NET or C#. If you'd like, you can even use C/C++.

    ASP.NET doesn't just run on IIS either. Apache runs it along with Mono.
  • Re:Total hearsay FUD (Score:2, Informative)

    by swimmar132 ( 302744 ) <joe@@@pinkpucker...net> on Monday July 19, 2004 @02:15PM (#9739774) Homepage
    JavaServer Faces does the webcontrols/validators you mentioned. Plus java has all the APIs you could want.
  • Very Simple (Score:2, Informative)

    by rjdohnert ( 772699 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @02:19PM (#9739802) Homepage
    Many people say you cannot run ASP.NET forms on Apache, yes you can. I do it and many people do it. I found a short little tutorial for you guys. here [codeproject.com] Here is the announcement from the Apache team that they would be supporting ASP.NET on Apache here [wired.com] OMG, Microsoft actually helped Covalent and the Apache teams get ASP.NET working on Apache 2. Read it [newsfactor.com] This is more Oracle anti-MS rhetoric to get more money in their pockets.
  • Re:Oh, PLEASE! (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 19, 2004 @02:26PM (#9739857)
    Well, not everything MS does is evil. But their EULA [cybersource.com.au] comes might close in my book.
  • Oh please... (Score:3, Informative)

    by john_smith_45678 ( 607592 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @03:31PM (#9740347) Journal
    PHP5 is a clear shot at ASP? Maybe ASP 3.x, NOT ASP.Net. PHP's library pales in comparison to .Net. I'd rather use Mono.
  • by nahdude812 ( 88157 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @04:07PM (#9740732) Homepage
    Or you use the freely available Turck MM Cache [sourceforge.net] which has similar or better performance compared to the commercial Zend engine, and provides memory resident caching besides just storing post-compile scripts.
  • Re:This says it all (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 19, 2004 @06:35PM (#9742324)
    Of course, if you are working out side the toolbox, you will have to author JavaScript directly or JavaScript rendering components.

    ASP.NET makes it possible to create components that circumvent the need JavaScript. The component writer will have to do the JavaScript of course. It does not provide every component to address every JavaScript need out of the box. In fact there never has been a RAD abstraction over a lower level framework that made every thing the lower level framework has done. If that is the case there is no need for third party components.

    ASP.NET is a RAD component Framework much like VCL. Delphi/C++ Builder components don't do everything you can dream up of. Which is why people made over 4000+ OSS components and 4000+ proprietry component using the framework and native Win32 calls so that the end user developers can plug and play with components. ASP.NET is like that.
  • Apache::ASP provides ASP for free. Given the issues the author has with PHP (and there are plenty of other complaints beyond those he cites) it would seem that having ASP on a free platform would be an ideal combination for him.

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