Kevin Thorpe wrote:
Terence wrote:
These comparrison articles are always fun :)
http://otn.oracle.com/pub/articles/hull_asp.html
Especially when they disappear before anyone can read them ;-)
I saw it just fine... Here's the bottom line on it:
(quoted from
http://otn.oracle.com/pub/articles/hull_asp.html)
Making the Choice
Without assuming you've already decided to go with PHP, I'll conclude
that its strengths far outweigh its weaknesses. (See the summary in
Table 1.) It boils down to price, speed and efficiency, security,
cross-platform applicability, and open-source opportunity. Its only
weakness is its lack of a pure and perfect OOP implementation; however,
this is a minor drawback. Though language constructs do help,
ultimately, good coding is a matter of practice, execution, good habits,
and discipline.
Table 1
PHP 4 PHP 5 ASP.NET
Software price free free free
Platform price free free $$
Speed strong strong weak
Efficiency strong strong weak
Security strong strong strong
Platform strong strong weak (IIS only)
Platform any any win32 (IIS only)
Source available yes yes no
Exceptions no yes yes
OOP weak strong strong
Price. Here, we must consider not simply the price tag of the initial
investment, which, in the case of PHP, is obviously free, but also the
implementation, maintenance, and debugging costs. In the case of PHP,
you may invest in the Zend optimization engine. With ASP, however,
you're investing from the very beginning, and you're spending for add-on
technologies—libraries for doing graphics manipulations, for instance.
But, in the long term, PHP isn't going to press you to upgrade and
collect more licensing fees. Everyone who has dealt with complex
licensing also knows that companies spend time and money just ensuring
they are compliant. Furthermore, you have a difference in response when
getting bugs fixed. This, of course, translates to time, which
translates to cost for overall development.
Speed and efficiency. As I mentioned earlier, ASP.NET is a framework
allowing you to use various programming languages. In addition, it is
touted as having a great object-oriented model. All this is true, but it
becomes a detriment as far as speed is concerned. For all that
advantage, there is a lot more code to run through to execute the same
ASP page than you have to execute in the PHP engine for an equivalent
PHP page. PHP is the quick-and-dirty type of solution, the one to get
the job done. And though a lot of robustness has been added to it since
its 2.0 and 3.0 days, it still retains that core optimized high-speed
approach.
Speed is not the only consideration. Memory usage is also important.
Security. ASP.NET runs on IIS, which has been compromised innumerable
times, as evidenced by IT news reports every other week. It has become
such a liability, in fact, that in spite of all the marketing dollars
spent on it, many IT professionals refuse to have their networks exposed
with an IIS Web server. PHP, however, works with Apache, which has a
proven track record of speed, reliability, and hardened security. Check
www.securityfocus.com for more information.
Cross-platform applicability. ASP.NET runs on IIS and is starting to run
on Apache, which can run on a whole host of platforms. PHP has been
designed to work with Apache from the beginning, so you have many proven
and reliable server platforms to choose from.
Open source opportunity. Open source is not just some philosophical
torch idealistic programmers, or companies wanting to save a few bucks
on licensing costs, are carrying. When you're dealing with bugs in the
software itself, open source can be a serious godsend.
In either case, with PHP or ASP.NET, you have a large user base using
the software and possibly encountering bugs. With ASP.NET, those bugs
have to go through a bureaucratic process to get acknowledged, fixed,
tested, and rolled out in a new patch or release. PHP fixes, however,
can get fixed quickly and rereleased. Anyone who has watched open-source
development knows new releases and patches often come out in days rather
than in weeks or months, as with commercial software. If that's not fast
enough, you can always fix a problem yourself if you have to.
--
Justin Koivisto -
sp**@koivi.com
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