Difference Between asp, asp.net and aspx?

[fightapilotdean]

im new to asp stuff and iv done a bit of research.
iv found asp, asp.net and aspx. iv never done asp or related stuff and i would like a few pointers.
asp - server controls?
how is asp different from php
whats the difference between this asp, asp.net and apsx.
could anyone point me to a tutorial which will help

[Old Pedant]

ASP.NET and ASPX are the same thing. ASP.NET is the name of the *technology*. It uses pages that end with the extension ".aspx"

ASP is obsolete. You can still use it, but Microsoft stopped active development of it almost 10 years ago. If you want to learn a technology for the future, one where you can earn money programming with it, don't learn ASP.

PHP is almost as old as ASP, but it *IS* still being actively developed. The original PHP and the orginal ASP were very similar. But PHP has undergone many changes over the years where ASP has not. (Microsoft decided to just drop ASP in favor of a whole new concept when it changed to ASP.NET.)

ASP.NET is only available on Windows. PHP is available on almost every platform.

PHP is easier to learn than ASP.NET, but ASP.NET has many advantages that are not obvious until you start using it.

You have to decide which you will learn. We can't do that for you.

[petersampsons]

ASP is Script based language while ASP.NET Complied programming language and aspx is the extension of ASP.net page.

[Old Pedant]

Originally Posted by petersampsons

ASP is Script based language while ASP.NET Complied programming language...

A bit misleading. ASP and ASP.NET are *platforms*. Not languages at all.

ASP uses VBScript and JScript as its languages of choice. But in fact neither of those is a pure-script language, despite the names. In point of fact, both are compiled from source code into an internal byte code. That byte code is then indeed interpreted in order to execute the programs.

ASP.NET can use a variety of languages, though VB.NET and C# are by far the two most popular. Again, both those languages are compiled into a byte code. The big distinction between these languages and VBS and JS are that the .NET "interpreter" (the "Common Language Runtime") actually then can compile the byte code (also known as "Common Intermediate Language" or "CIL") produced by *any* compliant .NET language down to machine code. [If you care, this is quite similar to what Java systems do, where the process is known as "JIT" or "Just In Time compiling".]

It is also true that VB.NET and C# are "strongly typed languages" (though there is mode in VB.NET where the "strongly typed" part isn't determined until CIL time) where VBScript and JScript are "untyped" languages (a lie--both *have* types, but they automatically choose the needed type for you...most of the time...that "most" being a source of problems when it doesn't happen).

So there are both similarities and fundamental differences in the languages, but in many aspects the two platforms accomplish the same things in much the same ways.

[Morgoth]

I think this post should be stickied, next to whammy's old post.