Considering server-side languages

The first language I chose was ASP.

It was at such a beginner level — just understanding values being passed back and forth — when I moved to PHP.

To be honest, I still don't really grasp the differences (advantages or disadvantages) among the three languages.

Since I've been dealing with only one of them, when people say things like "using a particular language has many advantages when building a certain kind of site," or "using a particular DB has many advantages," it's hard for me to understand.

Setting aside whether PHP is good or bad, or MYSQL is good or bad,

I'm posting this because I'm curious about other developers' opinions.

If you could explain the characteristics and pros and cons of each, it would be a great help.

The biggest factor is probably that I haven't spent much time with the other languages, but with HTML as a baseline, I think the biggest goal is to reprocess the stored information or to display it to the user.

Looking forward to many opinions ^^



Comment :
First of all, you can't say that a particular language is good or bad.
Each language has its strengths and weaknesses.


1. ASP

In the case of ASP, the script itself is not particularly powerful,
but you can create or support components.

ASP is an HTML page containing one or more scripts (small embedded programs), processed by the web server
before being sent to the user.

As a web-based application development tool, it's easy to develop with, simple, and offers excellent performance.
With components like ActiveX, DLLs, etc., it allows improved object-orientation and code reuse.

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Pros: When the client requests data, all processing can be done with a single Dll, so operation is fast.

Cons: It only runs on Windows-based IIS (Internet Information Server) and PWS (Personal Web Server).

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2. PHP

In the case of PHP, since it was originally created as a web-only language, there's no need to elaborate.
Also, PHP is a web language based on C. Because it's based on C, expression is also free.

However, the components supported in ASP all have to be made directly yourself, which is a downside,
but php.net continues to support this aspect, so it's resolved to some extent.

Also, as PHP has spread widely, source security for PHP has become essential, and zend (http://www.zend.com) was developed to enable selling PHP as a packaged solution like an application.

Once encoded with zend, PHP can no longer be parsed, making it perhaps the most optimal model for source security and developing solutions for sale.

Also, this year Delphi advanced "Delphi for PHP" so that PHP developers can approach web applications with another upgrade.

Jonathan Benedicto, owner of JomiTech, a development-tool company located in Ontario, Canada, evaluated it:
"CodeGear's development tools are the best on the market, and Delphi for PHP is no exception."

PHP keeps developing day by day, so I think someday a PHP Mobile may come out.


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Pros: The program is concise, easily integrated with DBs, and fast.

Cons: PHP must solve everything you need. If PHP doesn't provide it, you can't find a solution.


In PHP 5, currently released up to beta version 4, there are a few weaknesses.
One of them is the absence of an exception-handling feature — that is, no event-based error-handling instance for stopping the program's normal flow
and jumping to error-handling code. Java provides exception-handling features for error handling,
and C++ provides try-catch-throw style exception handling. Of course, managing errors in PHP code is fully possible.
But since no standardized structure is provided, the way error handling is implemented depends entirely
on the programmer's discretion, and this leads to the problem of inconsistency.

Also, while it's true that PHP is weak in some areas,
in the areas where its strengths shine, it stands out clearly.
First, the cost is low and you don't need to worry about licensing issues.
PHP is an open-source language, and the entire developer community is jointly pushing development and bug fixes.
If there's a feature you don't like, you can modify it freely.
PHP is fundamentally integrated with Apache, and can be compiled as a separate module or directly inside the Apache binary.

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3. JSP

Before learning about JSP, first: what is Java?

Since James Gosling announced the Java language in 1995, Java has gone through dazzling development.
Countless programmers around the world have fallen for Java's charms, and it's true that users are rapidly increasing thanks to Java's powerful object-orientation
and diverse features.

As an object-oriented language not bound to any particular platform (operating system), I think its popularity will continue to grow. Also, it integrates almost perfectly the strengths of every language that has appeared so far, and
removes the burden of pointers and dynamic memory management used in C, lightening developers' load.
Java code can be run identically without code modification on any operating system, as long as a JVM (Java Virtual Machine) is present.

JSP

It's a technology made by Sun Microsystems for creating dynamic content.
It's a portmanteau of "Server + Applet!".
Java servlets inherit all the characteristics of Java directly.
Unlike CGI, instead of creating a process for each request, it creates a Java thread.
The created thread can share resources via the parent thread, so there is no unnecessary resource waste.

At the top of these threads sits a process called the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
Because Java servlets like this have relatively low overhead and use resources effectively, they show relatively excellent performance on large-scale servers.
With HTML (static content) documents being included inside the servlet Java code, even simple HTML documents
require knowledge of servlets and have a major drawback of needing recompilation.


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Pros:

Not dependent on any particular hardware platform, operating system, or server software.

Can be executed independently of platform on any OS where a JVM is installed (Linux, Windows).
Since it's a Java-based language, you can use the rich Java APIs, multithreading concept,
and object-oriented programming techniques as-is.

By separating the presentation layer for display and the implementation layer for internal logic, you can work efficiently in each domain.
Written components (program elements that can do work) can be reused at any time.


Cons:

Hardest to learn and DB integration is finicky.
For small-scale cases, the speed is slower than other languages.

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4. ASP.NET

ASP.NET, which signifies a new evolution of ASP, does not provide complete backward compatibility with previous versions of ASP.
In fact, the previous ASP technology has more in common with PHP than with ASP.NET (which is a complete framework for web application implementation).

The ASP.NET model has the very important advantage of providing a flexible environment in which you can freely choose your programming language.

ASP.NET supports not only scripting languages such as VBScript, JScript, Perlscript, and Python, but also compiled languages such as VB, C#, C, Cobol, Smalltalk, and Lisp.
The new framework uses CLR (Common Language Runtime), which first compiles the language source into Microsoft Intermediate Language code, then the CLR executes it.

The ASP.NET framework supports true object-oriented programming (OOP), with inheritance, polymorphism,
and encapsulation.

The .NET class library is organized into inheritable classes based on various tasks (XML integration, image manipulation, etc.).

Setting aside the programming language and methodology, the most important issue is database access.
When programming with ASP.NET, integration with the database is performed via ODBC.
ODBC uses a consistent set of function calls to access the target database.


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Pros:

Built on a clean design and implementation philosophy.

With its language flexibility and sophisticated object-oriented capabilities, ASP.NET is like an object-oriented programmer's dream.

From this perspective, ASP.NET can be evaluated as offering perfect compatibility with a programmer's existing skills.

Another advantage is the development environment.
For example, developers can use WebMatrix, Visual Studio .NET, or Borland tools such as Delphi or C++ Builder.

Visual Studio supports an excellent debugging environment with breakpoint setting, code-section tracing, call-stack review, and so on. Beyond that, it seems clear that various third-party IDE solutions for ASP.NET will appear soon.



Cons:

The advantages in flexibility and stability turn into disadvantages in efficiency.

ASP.NET has long code paths, and therefore uses many resources in terms of memory usage and execution time.

For web-based applications that have to support thousands or tens of thousands of concurrent users per second,
this can have serious consequences. The memory-usage issue is also likely to place a heavy burden on the web server.

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Note: the contents and pros/cons of each web language above are partially quoted.