Why ASP?
Before you decide to use ASP to implement your web application, you should
do some serious thinking to determine if ASP is the correct solution for
your particular problem.
If you need a dynamic web site, with database connectivity, and you
already are using IIS 3.0 or up, then ASP is obviously the simple choice.
If you are using a UNIX server and want to use ASP, you have two
options:
- Buy a third part product, like Chilisoft, to run your ASP on a
non-Microsoft web server, or
- Move your site to a host who provides NT webservers.
There are many advantages to using ASP. They include database
connectivity, the ability to create dynamic web sites, and the ease with
which you can create web sites to sell inventory on the web. ASP is
nice because it is free! ASP's biggest advantage, in my opinion, is that
it is easy to learn, especially for those who are familiar with
VisualBASIC.
There are also non-Microsoft development tools for sale to create dynamic
web sites, but those products (such as Cold Fusion) aren't free. ASP,
however, is!
It is easier, in my opinion, to write dynamic sites using ASP than it is
using Perl on a UNIX box. UNIX webservers are more stable than NT
servers, though, and Perl script will most often run quicker than ASP
script.
In summation, if you have a Microsoft webserver, the choice is pretty
obvious if you want a dynamic website.
