Which course, PHP or .NET (ASP, VB)?

um7y1h83ge06nx

Hi everyone,

I have a question that's been confusing me, so I thought I'd come to the experts!

Here at work, I have been temporarily moved to a different department. Have lots of C, C++ and VB6 experience in the old position, but no web design experience.

A project given to me in this new department is to create online forms, databases, send automated emails, for a system that used to be paper based. Have been told I'm free to do it whatever way I want.

Was thinking of going the Windows-Apache-mySQL-PHP (WAMP) approach, but was wondering about .NET technologies. My supervisor has said that if I need a training course, cost and location is no problem (as long as I don't completely take the p*ss)

Haven't had time to fully research all the options because I need to know the answer fairly quick. So what would be better for this, and for my CV and future, WAMP approach or .NET?

Thanks in advance.

Ginger

.NET would be my choice. I came from ASP and went onto the whole .NET track.

While both approaches have their merits and if it were possible i would say learn both, for career options, .NET strikes me as the way to go.

This is only personal opinion there will be many good arguments for and against.

But if you have developed in VB6 moving to .NET wont be that hard and the web and windows aspects are fairly similar ie a datagrid works the same in both instances.

Also you could go Windows Apache Mono and .NET

grahamor

I have to agree with Ginger.

If you have experience in VB and C/C++ then learning C# will be a breeze.

You will be amazed at all the functionality .NET offers. There are so many pre-built classes in the framework that make all web based stuff really quick and simple to do.

Also, if you have experience with ASP.NET and SQL Server then youll never have to worry about being out of work.

Just personal opinion, hope it helps

pwd

I agree .NET is a better choice for the reasons already given.
I think that never having to worry about being out of work is an overstatement. At the moment the market is very good for that skillset but I've heard predictions of it becoming flooded

NutJob

Im also for C# on this one

You get the advantage of the clr + controls and an easy to debug language.

Big plus: Its easy to write a secure .net web app. Which is a pain in php.:(

Ginger

@pwd, I agree, the problem is whenever there is a gap in the market there is always a rush to fill it.

amen

.NET is the way to go.

I'm more interested in your dept though. You can choose any tech you want?
No standard dev environment? Who maintains code when you are gone?
What happens if you write in some obscure language?
I'm not being critical always interested in why some companies choose their dev methods

um7y1h83ge06nx

Thanks for all the replies guys. It has cleared up my confusion.

amen wrote:

I'm more interested in your dept though. You can choose any tech you want?
No standard dev environment? Who maintains code when you are gone?
What happens if you write in some obscure language?
I'm not being critical always interested in why some companies choose their dev methods

Long story! The company is mainly a hardware company, a lot of the management come from almost exclusively hardware backgrounds, and they tend to not appreciate what software is really all about, and as long as a project is done they're happy.

The Corinthian

Yeah, I'd have to agree with people here. As much as I actually prefer PHP, .NET is commercially more attractive.

pwd

It's similar where I work. There are only two technical people in the business area - almost everyone else is sales/management. We can use anything we can get a licence for.

Talliesin

Also WAMP is a worse-of-both-worlds situation. If you're going to use Windows, use IIS (which can run both ASP.NET and PHP). If you're going to use Apache, use *nix.