Programming langauges for web development

[tleisher]

So I've been programming websites in PHP, XHTML, CSS and Javascript for years now and I'm just learning about ASP.NET. But I have a few questions...

1) Can C#, ASP.NET and and other programming languages be used to create websites? Up until this point I've had a wall in my mind that seperated programming languages (C#, C++, Java) to software development and scripting languages (ASP, PHP, CSS, XHTML, etc) to web development.

2) I've never liked ASP, but with the .NET has a ton changed? Is it becoming more of a standard and if so why?

3) Which is better to use for a dynamically, user driven website, ASP.NET or PHP?

4) How often is ASP.NET (or any .NET) used in terms of web development? Since a lot of web hosting providers use Linux and not Windows as their OS, is it difficult to develope in ASP.NET because of this?

I suppose that's all for now, I'm sure I'll have more in the near future.

[Alsvha]

1) Yes. ASP.NET utilizes what is called "code behind" which is programming run on the server which can be coded in a .NET language such as C# and VB.Net providing powerfull tools to do what before in ASP took ages and was rather difficult, meaning webbased programming now approches application based programming with object orientated technologies.
You can even make code libraries which can be utlized across and in multiple webprojects.
It is a new way of programming webbased applications/webpages and I never regret taking that turn myself (never did PHP, but did some ASP)

2) You can not really compare ASP to ASP.NET as technologies. That is how much have changed.

3) Biased answer being a .NET programmer, but I'd have to say ASP.NET because of the powerfull programming languages and tools you can utilize. It is no longer scripting languages, but full blow programming languages, and thus the difference between web and "normal" applications diminishes significantly.

4) Dunno - my company is exclusive .NET (except for a few legacy projects which are ASP, PHP and even a Delphi or two), and I've never bothered to look up statistics. All I can tell though, is there seems to be more advertisment after .NET people then PHP people (heck, I even see more COBOL advertisments then PHP ones)


Personally, I hated ASP and never did bother learning much of it because webbased programming didn't really interest me that much, until I got hired as a .NET based webprogrammer. I love programming ASP.NET and .NET in general because as said the line between applications and web is being blurred out.

[tleisher]

Well thats good, I've wanted to learn .NET but I never liked ASP so maybe now is the time. Thing is though, I dont want to develope in a language that most web servers dont provide for.