.asp or .tcl?

[gypsey]

Hello folks,

I work for an online betting company that originally hired an external company to code their site in .tcl. When we want to put more funcionality onto the site we try to do as much a we can inhouse (saves on the spondoolies!) so we've added on sections in php, pearl and javascript. Lately the subject has been raised of recoding the whole site in .asp which could free us from this external company and give us language consistency.....as i don't know much about asp i'm not aware of the disadvantages of the language...can anyone assist me in my decision?

thanks in advance,

Gypsey...

[raf]

Kinda like asking a butcher if meat is healthy ;)

I’m using ASP for about 9 months now, and its quite easy to learn, has some useful build in functions and basically, I’ve been able to do each and every thing I wanted to do.
Downside is:
- it’s not always as easy to do some more complicated stuff, which drives people to ASP.NET
- it Microsoft all the way. You need a windowsmachine and an IIS (and you best use one of there scripting languagesVBscript or Jscript)
In about a week, a complete novice can have a real solid basic knowledge about the asp-objects, components, functions, statements and database-interaction. Which is quite impressive if you compare it with some other languages.

But, … at the moment, I’m switching to PHP, because it’s shorter code, there are more build in functions, it has a privilidged relation with MySQL, it runs on Apache, it’s open source, …

If I had the time, I would probably dig in to JSP, but Java is a huge topic and it has kind of a steap learning curve. If you need a realy stable framework, create modular code, have a business that can be fitted in an object oriented framework … well, I guess that ASP is probably not the best way to go. You’ll then be better of with JSP or ASP.NET.

It all comes down to the functionalities you want your app to have. You should have a clear vision about the functionalities of your site, the expected traffic, expected further developmentpath (modifications etc), what kind a career you (as a company or coder) have in mind ...
“Going with the flow” can be the best strategy if you want to make dollars out of your code … There will always be more paid jobs for ASP(.NET) programmers then for PHP programmers. And Micro$oft is really promoting there .NET as a solution for applications that need industrial power and stability. At the moment, almost all critical processes in big firms run on unix-machines, and they are not eager to change that. ASP is then sometimes used as a webinterface for smaller, non critical functionalitys. So it really depends on what sort a market you target as a firm or as programmer.

Personally, I just try to learn as much languages as I can, so I can choose the best fitted language for any given app. I’ve got the luxury that I’m not a professional coder, so I can choose the best solutions for each individual app, and I’m not bound to some king a long-term-firm-standards.


What is .tcl ?

[gypsey]

thanks a million raf! More info. than i could have hoped for, lots to think about now. .tcl, pronounced Tickle and is a general purpose programming language originally intended to be embedded in other applications as a configuration and extension language. The success of one its most important embeddings, the Tk toolkit for the X Windows System, has resulted in Tcl and Tk together being most heavily used for building graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It is also heavily used as a scripting language like Awk, Perl or Rexx, and (as Expect) is used to script interactive applications (e.g., to automate telnet logins to various information vendors).......info, totally robbed from net...thanks again!