In the world of web design, there are many
codes and acronyms for these codes going around. However,
if you consider the dynamic of content management, there
are only two of them standing out: ASP and PHP. The other
codes are JSP and Cold Fusion.
The first one, ASP, is expensive, not easy to learn and
compatible only with Microsoft servers. ASP stands for Active
Server Pages and the language it uses is simply a derivative
of an almost dead language, Visual Basic Script. One can
associate it with the Access or Excel Microsoft Products.
ASP is Microsoft's attempt to “encourage” the
use for its own products, which is why ASP is generally
used by big companies. Big companies don’t want their
sites to become unavailable to some users who mostly use
Microsoft products. So, one might conclude that Microsoft's
strategy is working quite well.
The second acronym is PHP; the legendary open source that
was created by a student called Rasmus Lendorf. The original
meaning was Personal Home Page, which later became known
as PHP Hypertext Preprocessor. It is generally mentioned
with the names Apache and MySQL. MySQL, being the most commonly
used database, contributes a lot to the fame of PHP. It
uses its original language and is easily learned by reading
and starting from scratch. The easy nature of PHP comes
from the fact that it originates from C programming language.
The Web has always been about individuals banding together
to create resources for one another. PHP is loved by the
Web community and you will find and abundance of tutorials,
tools, Web sites and other online support ready and available
to guide you from your Web sites conception to its launch.
More and more host servers are supporting PHP. Chances
are you can find a good free or cheap host for your site
that will allow you to run PHP. You will find that PHP is
supported by many different "html" servers.
JSP (java server page) is an extension to the Java servlet
technology. Just like the others, it supplies the "coders"
with a simple programming vehicle to create and display
dynamic content web pages. It is not very popular compared
with other languages, but driven by a small group of enthusiasts,
it is claimed to be the main competitor of ASP.
ColdFusion is an application development tool created by
Allaire Corporation. It is used for constructing Web pages
that interact with databases like PHP or ASP. ColdFusion
Markup Language (CFML) makes use of HTML-like tags that
are embedded in the Web pages, making it easy to learn and
understand. ColdFusion uses an engine (like PHP), which
interfaces with a Windows-based Web server.
After all is said and done, PHP has it's advantages. It
supports different servers and databases (including Access
and Excel), and is easy and efficient to use. Hats off for
PHP!
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