vision2000 -> Which server side language to learn? (4/11/2002 10:31:57)
Hi, I am feeling pressured to learn how to apply databases to web sites. I am not too keen on getting into programming though, but sense it is needed to extend my skills and offer more to my customers (maybe charge more also).
However it's confusing - ASP, PHP, CF, CGI, Perl?
Which is the easiest to learn, apply and will be used in the future?
no_mac_jack -> RE: Which server side language to learn? (4/11/2002 18:49:51)
I've found PHP to be very easy to work with. It's more structured than ASP (with VBS), and it has built-in functions for most of the things that you will want to do with databases.
ASP is fine, and I still do sites with it, but I think you might as well learn .Net now. I think that's where things are headed, and it's an incredibly powerful setup. I haven't mastered .Net yet, but that's one of my next projects. Then you have to decide what language to code .Net with.
I haven't tried any of the others you mentioned. Whatever you choose to pursue, be sure to download the documentation if it's available. I have the PHP docs as well as the VBScript docs in Windows Help File format so it's super easy to look up functions when you need to. Hope that helps!
~no_mac_jack
Friends don't let friends use Macs.
vision2000 -> RE: Which server side language to learn? (4/11/2002 21:32:50)
Hi Mac,
Thanks for responding - can you suggest amy good resources to get started ie tutorials, books etc
The help file idea sounds like a great way to stay current.
no_mac_jack -> RE: Which server side language to learn? (4/12/2002 18:46:04)
For .Net, I would check out [utl="http://www.gotdotnet.com/"]GotDotNet.com[/url] It's a Microsoft site with all sorts of great little tutorials and things for getting you started. *Tons* of information on there...and it has a cool interface. Also, you can get the code examples in whatever language you choose (VBS,C#,JS). It has a list of links to other .Net sites, too.
For PHP, I would check out http://www.php.net/ and http://www.phpbuilder.com/ but the latter really wasn't all that helpful to me. A great book that I found at the library was published by Sams and written by Luke Welling and Laura Thompson. The title is "PHP and MySQL Web Development". It's a beast, but it has great examples on authentication, e-commerce, etc.