ASP to PHP transition

[monsey11]

I've been working on asp developing web applications the past few years
now I'm offered a position only if i know PHP.

do you think its a possibility?

which book do you think will get me the through the quickest?

thank you in advance

[Andy Jeffries]

On Tue, 16 May 2006 12:19:42 -0700, monsey11 wrote:

I've been working on asp developing web applications the past few years
now I'm offered a position only if i know PHP.

do you think its a possibility?
It depends on how good a programmer you are. If you're asking me if I
could do the inverse, I honestly believe if I needed to I could learn ASP
in a weekend (certainly enough to be able to write passable scripts to do
anything I needed, maybe not in the best way but passable and to know
where to look for answers).

PHP isn't difficult and if you already have a decent amount of programming
experience then it won't be difficult.
which book do you think will get me the through the quickest?

I'd recommend something like the Wrox books Beginning PHP and Professional
PHP, then Advanced PHP by George Schlossnagle.

The first couple will give you a quick grounding in the language and
developing PHP applications. The last one will help you grasp a bit more
of the internals of PHP and how to write faster/cleaner PHP.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Andy
--
Andy Jeffries MBCS CITP ZCE | gPHPEdit Lead Developer
http://www.gphpedit.org | PHP editor for Gnome 2
http://www.andyjeffries.co.uk | Personal site and photos

[TristaSD]

I'm the same way - I come from ASP, VBA, and a little of .Net - the
transition is a piece of cake. Syntax is the biggest thing, but if you
are like me and used to writing lots of boilerplate code just to access
a simple database, php will pleasantly surprise you =)

[Jerry Stuckle]

mo******@gmail.com wrote:

I've been working on asp developing web applications the past few years
now I'm offered a position only if i know PHP.

do you think its a possibility?

which book do you think will get me the through the quickest?

thank you in advance

While I think learning PHP in a weekend is a bit optimistic, you can get a good
feel for the language in that time and be able to write some simple scripts.

Becoming fluent in the language will take longer. But even in a week or so you
should be able to work with it, especially if you have the help files available
(the Windows .chm files are the best, IMHO).

--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attglobal.net
==================

[Andy Jeffries]

On Tue, 16 May 2006 16:57:20 -0400, Jerry Stuckle wrote:

While I think learning PHP in a weekend is a bit optimistic, you can get a
good feel for the language in that time and be able to write some simple
scripts.

Are you telling me that you couldn't sit down with a couple of books, a PC
and a spare weekend (without kids/wife/other pressures) and be able to
write decent-enough ASP scripts?

Come on Jerry, I feel a challenge coming on ;-)

Cheers,

Andy

--
Andy Jeffries MBCS CITP ZCE | gPHPEdit Lead Developer
http://www.gphpedit.org | PHP editor for Gnome 2
http://www.andyjeffries.co.uk | Personal site and photos

[Jerry Stuckle]

Andy Jeffries wrote:

On Tue, 16 May 2006 16:57:20 -0400, Jerry Stuckle wrote:

While I think learning PHP in a weekend is a bit optimistic, you can get a
good feel for the language in that time and be able to write some simple
scripts.

Are you telling me that you couldn't sit down with a couple of books, a PC
and a spare weekend (without kids/wife/other pressures) and be able to
write decent-enough ASP scripts?

Come on Jerry, I feel a challenge coming on ;-)

Cheers,

Andy

Sure I could. I wouldn't even need a weekend. I've been writing ASP scripts
for about 4 years :-).

Seriously - yes, you can get the syntax down easily in a weekend. But it takes
a few more days to sort out all the functions, system-provided arrays,
constants, tips and tricks, etc. to get it done. If you could become that
proficient in a weekend, we wouldn't have so many beginner questions in this
group :-). But it's not *quite* that simple, and sometimes it can be hard to
find the correct doc.

And BTW - if I didn't know ASP, I could pick up the syntax in a weekend. But I
couldn't become really decently proficient in under a week or so.

--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attglobal.net
==================

[Chung Leong]

Andy Jeffries wrote:

It depends on how good a programmer you are. If you're asking me if I
could do the inverse, I honestly believe if I needed to I could learn ASP
in a weekend (certainly enough to be able to write passable scripts to do
anything I needed, maybe not in the best way but passable and to know
where to look for answers).

Classical ASP perhaps. You definitely can't learn ASP.Net in a
weekend. It's rather funny that making something harder is regarded as
progress :-)

[Erwin Moller]

mo******@gmail.com wrote:

I've been working on asp developing web applications the past few years
now I'm offered a position only if i know PHP.

do you think its a possibility?

which book do you think will get me the through the quickest?

thank you in advance

Hi,

My advise would be: Go. Take that PHP position.

A very short history of my programminglife:
- started with Perl. (Never mastered it, Perl is a kind of difficult
language for starters, but the Whole web was Perldriven.)
- got a job as VB/ASP/DB guy. Learned VB-script.
- Had enough of VB and learned Java (J2EE). Java is a beautifull language
IMHO, but often overly complex. And the API is just huge.
- started with PHP, ditched all other languages shortly after.
I only do PHP these days.

Now I am all pro-php: It is easy to get started for newcomers.
The language offers great flexibility, so you can develop your own 'taste'
of programming.
I also like www.php.net. It is THE place to lookup functioncalls, and also
contains often very usefull usercomments.

Well.. :-) Go PHP.
If you are coming from VB/ASP you can easily step into PHP, because the
structure resembles VB/ASP. (Jumping from code to literal HTML and such)

And as others have said: You can get a good feeling for PHP in a week or so.

Good luck.

Regards,
Erwin Moller

[Dikkie Dik]

PHP is not that hard to learn, especially if you also know some other
languages. PHP has a lot of characteristics from other languages, so the
syntax is not that strange (especially if you can read JavaScript, java,
C...)
What I like about VB is the legibility of the language. Just compare:

}
}
}
}

With

End If
Next intIndex
End With
End Function

And even this is supported by PHP (is called "alternative syntax"). One
advice: If you start to learn PHP, look up "magic quotes". It will save
you some embarrassment later.

Good luck.

Erwin Moller wrote:

mo******@gmail.com wrote:

I've been working on asp developing web applications the past few years
now I'm offered a position only if i know PHP.

do you think its a possibility?

which book do you think will get me the through the quickest?

thank you in advance

Hi,

My advise would be: Go. Take that PHP position.

A very short history of my programminglife:
- started with Perl. (Never mastered it, Perl is a kind of difficult
language for starters, but the Whole web was Perldriven.)
- got a job as VB/ASP/DB guy. Learned VB-script.
- Had enough of VB and learned Java (J2EE). Java is a beautifull language
IMHO, but often overly complex. And the API is just huge.
- started with PHP, ditched all other languages shortly after.
I only do PHP these days.

Now I am all pro-php: It is easy to get started for newcomers.
The language offers great flexibility, so you can develop your own 'taste'
of programming.
I also like www.php.net. It is THE place to lookup functioncalls, and also
contains often very usefull usercomments.

Well.. :-) Go PHP.
If you are coming from VB/ASP you can easily step into PHP, because the
structure resembles VB/ASP. (Jumping from code to literal HTML and such)

And as others have said: You can get a good feeling for PHP in a week or so.

Good luck.

Regards,
Erwin Moller

[monsey11]

thank you all, you really have been very kind.

I did not take the job but would you recommend i still get to know PHP?
i do a lot of consulting, any advantage of PHP over ASP?

Thanks in advance.
Stevie

mo******@gmail.com wrote:

I've been working on asp developing web applications the past few years
now I'm offered a position only if i know PHP.

do you think its a possibility?

which book do you think will get me the through the quickest?

thank you in advance

[Erwin Moller]

mo******@gmail.com wrote:

thank you all, you really have been very kind.

I did not take the job but would you recommend i still get to know PHP?
i do a lot of consulting, any advantage of PHP over ASP?
advantages of PHP over ASP?
Don't get this group started please. :P
Really too many advantages to even start considering to think about the
possibility to name them all.

But to name just a few (personal choice):
ASP is really a quite childish language, very limitted, using up way too
much space to code even simple stuff.
ASP is a great language for starters, but once you tasted a better language,
even your own ASPcode will look awefull to you after some time.
It is just impossible to be elegant in ASP.
Easy to make mistakes, difficult to debug, hard to read.

I stopped with ASP/VBscript years ago in favor of Java and PHP.
Sometimes I must update some old ASP-apps I made earlier, and all the above
comments apply.

If you have the time, go study PHP, you will not regret it.
My advise would also be to get your hands dirty soon in the process. ANd be
sure to visit www.php.net a lot: best place to check on the API and filled
with often very usefull usercomments.
just my 2 cent.

Regards,
Erwin Moller


Thanks in advance.
Stevie

[Tom]

php.net has been mentioned, but this is the page you'll want to
bookmark:

http://www.php.net/quickref.php

Tom
mo******@gmail.com wrote:

thank you all, you really have been very kind.

I did not take the job but would you recommend i still get to know PHP?
i do a lot of consulting, any advantage of PHP over ASP?

Thanks in advance.
Stevie

mo******@gmail.com wrote:

I've been working on asp developing web applications the past few years
now I'm offered a position only if i know PHP.

do you think its a possibility?

which book do you think will get me the through the quickest?

thank you in advance