Great answers!

I think I will go with Php...
I will still need java-script or something for client side scripting right ?

(I know nothing about web-programming at this point).

If you need some support on either of them try going to tek-tips.com . I actually haven''t tried the PHP forum there yet because my foray into PHP didn''t last too long. But when I was slummin'' with ASP I had alot of questions answered there in a friendly manner.

The C++ and Java forums also proved quite valuable at times

Seeya
Krippy

Yes, client-side scripting will still require java-script.

Basic Best Practices for ASP Web Applications:
-Only use Stored Proc''s in your DB, no Dynamic Queries (assuming your DB supports it)

-Put your DB Interface and Business Logic in a Compiled COM DLL.

-Only put display logic in the ASP.

The main principle is to separate your Web App into 3 layers (Data, Business Logic, and Presentation). Keeping these layers separate will allow you to use the tools that will work best for each part. That holds true for whatever languages you choose for the layers. (PHP or ASP)

Kylotan:
I''ve never had the ASP experiences you''ve had...very odd. Any "unexplainable" errors I''ve had with ASP have been something stupid I''ve done.

Epolevne

I don''t really have a need to work with the stuff, but I believe that with regard to quality, power, performance, cost, and cross-platform functionality, PHP, MySQL, and Apache are a darn good combination.

quote:

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Original post by Epolevne

Kylotan:
I''ve never had the ASP experiences you''ve had...very odd. Any "unexplainable" errors I''ve had with ASP have been something stupid I''ve done.

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I''ve had almost totally bare ASP scripts, just 10 lines or so, and received the ''Unspecified Error''. For no reason whatsoever. I have had to do bizarre workarounds just to get some things to work, simply because I was getting errors for no reason. I don''t claim to be an ASP expert, but then I was only doing simple stuff with a recordset or two, using Access or SQL Server databases.

Here: try this link to get an idea of how many people suffer this particular type of problem. (4020 hits on a search engine.)

I looked at a lot of those forum questions, and most of them had an answer. Some where incorrect versions of DLLs, others were Access related....

General Tip: using an Access DB from a web application is a bad idea. Access DBs don''t handle multiple connections well...at all...and will give random errors. That''s an Access problem and shouldn''t be held against ASP (or PHP)


Epolevne

quote:

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VB is copyrighted by Microsoft, I highly doubt they would give a licence to implement VB Script to Apache for free.

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I seriously doubt someone can copyright a *language*! The name is probably copyrighted.

I''m reminded of the day my daughter came in, looked over my shoulder at some Perl 4 code, and said, "What is that, swearing?" - Larry Wall

Actually certain parts of VB are patented by Microsoft. Which is why VBScript is not supported for ASP on Linux and also why GCC will not make a VB front-end that many people want.

It can be done but some crucial elements would have to be left out or left to link with Microsoft libraries which require you to purchase VB anyways.

Seeya
Krippy

quote:

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Original post by Epolevne
I looked at a lot of those forum questions, and most of them had an answer. Some where incorrect versions of DLLs, others were Access related....

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I would beg to differ that ''most'' of them had answers... I scanned through them and a lot were unanswered. And I got the error using SQL Server as well as Access. But even if SQL Server is less likely to cause such problems, 90% of people who start up with ASP are going to be using Access anyway, if only for testing it on their own machine with Personal Web Server before uploading to the ''proper'' server. (Not to mention that a lot of big clients still use Access anyway, rightly or wrongly.) If a Microsoft web scripting engine working with a Microsoft scripting language using Microsoft data access components accessing a Microsoft database can''t manage to interface well enough to pass a more descriptive error message down the system than "Unspecified Error", then what hope is there?

quote:

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General Tip: using an Access DB from a web application is a bad idea. Access DBs don''t handle multiple connections well...at all...and will give random errors. That''s an Access problem and shouldn''t be held against ASP (or PHP)

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Well yes, it''s a bad idea, but clients ask for stupid things and pay good money for you to give stupid things to them. I have no idea what the result would be using an Access DB with PHP, but I don''t think the error messages that Access with ASP give are satisfactory.

Kylotan:
That''s why I always run a test application for my clients...a simple robot. It just runs 20 web browsers through a simple dynamic site. First I run it with SQL...everything works fine. Then I switch it to Access...and it bombs every time. After that simple demonstration, any/all clients that wanted to use Access have switched to SQL. Also, if you get a data-access error with both SQL and Access, then it might be an old MDAC, or you''re not using ADO.

Microsoft isn''t a magic bullet, they write code just like the rest of us. Their code has issues, just like our code has issues... it just so happens that we expect their code to work 100% of the time in all situations.

If anyone is thinking about learning ASP, I''d suggest just moving straight to ASP.NET (currently beta 2). The error reporting is like a regular programming language, since it''s compiled. Hopefully using ASP.NET and ADO.NET you can eliminate the vague error messages that some have experienced.

Epolevne