Re: ASP or ASP.NET

Hi Martin,

I'm afraid you still have to be more specific in order to get an
authoritative answer. You say that you main concern is what technology you
use to build your database-driven web application. However, again, that is
dependent upon the requirements for your dissertation. Assuming that you
want to showcase some unspecified "skills," what skills do you want to
showcase? You state that your VBA project last year did not meet "the
criteria." What ARE the criteria?

Selecting a technology is not simply a matter of finding out what a bunch of
worldwide strangers who may or may not have various skills and skill levels
have to say, for whatever reasons they may have. That is hardly going to
give you a worthy answer. For example, there are occasionally 12-year-olds
who post in these newsgroups. There are people who know almost nothing about
programming who post in these newsgroups. There are people who post in these
newsgroups because they don't know what a newsgroup is, or simply to incite
controversy. How do you know which advice is going to be good advice? In
addition, you've already received a number of replies, none of which is
based on any knowledge of what your requirements are. In other words, the
advice given so far has been based upon the subjective like or dislike of a
given technology, which is often of a "religious" nature. There is an old
saying: "Consider the source." However, there is very little information
about the sources you are seeking advice from. Any advice you receive based
upon the lack of criteria you've provided is going to be unreliable.

So, how about giving us a clue as to what these mysterious criteria are? As
I mentioned in my earlier reply, learning a web application technology takes
a variable amount of time, partly due to the learning curve associated with
that technology. It will take quite a while to learn ASP.Net, while ASP,
which will be around for years to come, can be learned in a relatively short
period of time. In either case, writing web applications is much more
difficult than writing desktop applications. The user interface is HTML,
which can be viewed on a variety of systems, using a variety of browsers,
and with a variety of screen resolutions and window sizes. In addition,
we're talking about a stateless HTTP environment. Memory management is one
of the most difficult aspects of web application programming. You don't want
to spend a year or more learning a technology which you may never use again.
But we have no idea whether or not you intend to use it again.

So, in order to help you make a wise decision about your "main concern," we
need more information about your personal requirements and reasons for
needing to use one of these technologies.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
The sun never sets on
the Kingdom of Heaven

"Placek" <Placek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:82931C3E-B54D-4DD6-A93A-F9D58D2D2A43@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Hi Kevin
> Thanks for the info, I'm painfully aware that a database/website/code is
> not
> a dissertation. Last year I spent several months developing an application
> in
> VBA that did not meet the criteria. I'm keen not to make the same error.
>
> I've already done some programming, database and web site stuff on my
> course
> and now I want to showcase these skills by building a web site that
> queries a
> database. I know this sounds vague but my main concern right now is what
> technology I use to build it.
> Thanks again
> Martin
>
>
> "Kevin Spencer" wrote:
>
>> Hi Martin,
>>
>> It's not really possible to answer your question authoritatively based on
>> the information you've supplied. First, what is your dissertation about?
>> In
>> other words, are you studying programming, the Internet, databases, or
>> what?
>> Here's the reason I ask:
>>
>> First, a dissertation is not a web site. Nor is a dissertation a
>> database.
>> Nor is a dissertation an application. So, I'm a bit confused from the
>> beginning about what exactly your requirements are, and you haven't given
>> us
>> a clue as to what your course of study is in. So, we are left with
>> practically no information as to what the purpose of this web application
>> is, and what your reasons for creating it are.
>>
>> What technology you employ to create your application is going to be
>> determined by a number of factors. What are the requirements that drive
>> the
>> solution? What are the requirements for your dissertation? These are
>> similar
>> questions. For example, if your dissertation requires you to be a
>> programmer, you would be best advised to learn programming. It is
>> entirely
>> possible to create a web application with almost no programming skills.
>> So,
>> if your dissertation does NOT require you to be a programmer, it would
>> probably be a waste of your time to learn programming. Learning
>> programming,
>> and Internet programming in particular, is a daunting task, and I rather
>> doubt that it can be accomplished to any degree of expertise in 6 months.
>>
>> If the web application is peripheral to your dissertation, it would be
>> best
>> to stick with something simple. For example, you can use Micrsoft
>> FrontPage
>> to design a complete web site with database connectivity in a matter of
>> several days to several weeks. You can get up and running with ASP in a
>> bit
>> longer than that, perhaps 6 months if you work hard at it. ASP.Net will
>> take
>> a lot of work and time to really get proficient at.
>>
>> So, can you shed some light on exactly what this is for, what your course
>> of
>> study is, etc? Or am I correct in my suspicion that all college provides
>> is
>> the ability to sound intelligent by soliciting a lot of opinions and
>> mimicking the most popular?
>>
>> --
>> HTH,
>>
>> Kevin Spencer
>> Microsoft MVP
>> ..Net Developer
>> The sun never sets on
>> the Kingdom of Heaven
>>
>> "Placek" <Placek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:DE05B20B-E9B3-46F4-9021-419802282904@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> > Hi there
>> > I've posted a similar question on the ASP message board as I am keen to
>> > get
>> > as many opinions as I can.
>> >
>> > The situation is that I am a student just about to start on my
>> > dissertation,
>> > which is going to be a website that queries a database. I researched
>> > all
>> > the
>> > different methods of doing it (eg Java servlets, C) and decided on ASP.
>> > I
>> > bought a book and decided to install XP Pro as it has the latest IIS
>> > version.
>> >
>> > Then I read ASP is a dead language with the advent of ASP.NET. Is this
>> > true?
>> > Would I be flogging a dead horse spending the next six or so months
>> > learning
>> > and developing this application in ASP rather than ASP.NET?
>> >
>> > Thanks in advance
>> > Martin
>>
>>
>>


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