Re: Done w/ PHP - VB or C# ?

Miguel Cruz wrote: <snip>

As much as I'm not a fan of ASP (2 or 2.5, not worked with 3 much), I'd have to say that you could definitely at least read a directory's contents without having to purchase external libraries. Please don't go overboard.

It's been a while, but I remember that it was impossible to create a functional directory browser with off-the-shelf ASP functionality. The file component was categorically unwilling to follow mounted shares until we got some extra add-in. This was after a month of debate in newsgroup microsoft.public.this.that.the-other-thing, and plenty of experimentation during which I discovered, reported, and was contacted by MS engineers about more bugs than I've ever encountered in PHP.

This isn't specifically ASP, but NT permissions in general. PHP running under "off the shelf" Windows can't access shares either.

I don't think it's a bad thing that they see a niche and try to fill it. I think it's a bad thing from the web developer's perspective that there are so many unfilled niches. Furthermore, in contrast to the PHP/Open Source world I find the profiteering got annoying after a while. It was a drag just having to fill out a P.O. every week to buy another ridiculous little thing that may or may not be production-quality and had a no-refund policy. And the fact is, most of those little companies provide wretched documentation and support, and there is no real onlne user community in the Windows world to exchange information with. Well, there are lots of users, but the ratio of crap-to-usefulness in the fora is so high that finding information is painful at best.

Honestly, I find that now in the PHP community as well, to a larger extent than I used to, but perhaps it's because I/we aren't in the 'sessions v cookies' mentality anymore. Compiling GD support, for one, is a pain in the ass which you can't get really get good support for, due to the variety of systems. Servlet support as well. Java support has gotten better, but it generally just magically happens. I don't think I've had too many deep technical issues that have been resolved with help from the PHP community. Not because they're 'lesser' people, but we're trying to do stuff that most people don't do. It'd be like trying to get JScript support at an ASP site. Yeah, JScript works with ASP, but no one really uses it much, compared to VBScript.

Where the heck did you read that? Do you know what .NET is?

Slashdot. And no, to be honest.

:) Great answer. Honestly.

There's a lot of interesting concepts in the .NET codebase out there now (ASP.NET webforms, for example) as well as other platforms (Java springs to mind). Just because it's "not PHP" shouldn't mean you ignore it or worse yet, publicly denigrate it.

Public denigration of what I don't understand is how I strike out at a callous world that's denied me my just deserts: fame, millions, and a torrid love affair with Nancy Reagan. Either address the fundamental injustice here or cut me some slack.

Not sure how old you are or when you had this thing for Nancy - never been 'fanciable' since I've known her (but maybe I'm too much of a youngster). Michael Kimsal http://www.logicreate.com