A bit of a cookie-cutter poll this time, but sometimes those lead to the biggest and most interesting discussions. This is for the folks around here who are more of web developers than web designers:
What is your server-side language of choice?
Poll is on the site in the sidebar for your voting pleasure (now moved to the archives).
Many of you probably know multiple languages. Some of you probably are forced to write in particular languages for your job. For this poll, choose the language that you actually like the most.
And yes, I know there are more choices than in the list, that’s what “Other” is for, and I’d love to hear what those others are and why you prefer that language. For example, I’ve been hearing more and more about server-side JavaScript. Also if it’s not obvious, this is sans-framework. If you like Rails, clearly that’s Ruby. Django is Python. CodeIgnitor is PHP. Etc, etc.
I doubt anything can beat PHP ;) Its simple, fast and highly scalable.
You mean slow ;)
The application I work on handles well over 20k concurrent users daily (with plenty of room for that to expand).
This is all while using a framework (and for most of our interactions with the database, even using ORM) which a lot of people would foolishly consider “bloated” and “slow”.
Poorly designed applications will be slow in any language you choose =P
Also, Kohana is the bees knees!
ASP.NET
is closed source, not free, prone to security issues, and harder to learn.
closed source: true, but when was the last time that you worked on developing the PHP source?
not free: false. you can develop and compile .net completely free (you can even write it in notepad if you’re that way inclined). there’s even a freely available version of the IDE available!
prone to security issues: care to elaborate? I’ve not run into any in the last few years
harder to learn: really? i started using classic asp as it made more sense and was easier than php to get to grips with for me
And unfortunately I hear that I’m going to have to develop in .net for a project in a class I have to take for my IS major. Hopefully I can convince them to let me use PHP.
Microsoft opened the .NET Framework source code last year. It’s free and has no any security disadvantages comparing to others.
Josh – look at MVC as boris mentioned. Much nicer than the old winforms approach and much more like the lifecycle you’ll be used to with php
@Josh, I would approach everything with an open mind, even if you disagree with Microsoft on a philosophical level, or dislike the platform. But ultimately you can learn a lot of new skills when developing within a different platform or environment, many skills are usually transferable and can possibly aid you when learning other concepts in another languages. Give it a try you never know what might happen.
ASP.NET all the way. Plus it is free. Microsoft even releases free development tools for both the code and the database, and it includes built in jQuery support.
ASP.Net is a dogs framework. Using JS for no reasons (like a form submit). The sites i’v worked with (.net nuke, sharepoint) is really hard to make valid html sites in. And the error feedback (the red page) is horrible.
Yeah – I find the bashing without experience a very disturbing trend. Anyone who dishes on a “competitive” technology without even trying it doesn’t exactly have a lot of credibility IMO.
I use a LOT of different tools for both work and personal projects. ASP.NET (C# and VB.Net), Java, PHP, even a bit of Objective-C here and there. I get paid to solve business problems using technology, not take up a religious position. All in all, I don’t find a lot of these technologies all that terribly different when it comes to what they ultimately provide. Sure, the frameworks are structured differently and the language you use can give things a different flavor as you code, but… they all provide mostly comparable services at this point. I don’t really see a “deal killer” feature that’s missing when you really get down to comparing things.
The IDE is what makes .NET shine to me. It’s easy, fluid, and clear (I’ve been using XCode for ~10 years and I still find VS.NET easier to deal with). The debugging in VS.NET is just great (I’m really curious to know if people can suggest a good PHP debugging toolkit – really. Help me out – I really need a good one.). Visual Studio Matrix (free) is nice, too. I’ll admit I also prefer NetBeans over Eclipse for the same overall reason – it just feels better to me.
Look – here’s how I approach this stuff
1) Use what you want. Nobody cares but you.
2) A big lesson in business is to learn what your competitors do better than you and use that knowledge to improve your business and your products. But that starts with actually using something first – not talking about it without trying it. I’m not saying .NET the framework, C# the language, or VS.NET the IDE is any better than the combination of tools you’re using now. But I am suggesting you owe it to yourself to at least try things first.
3) NOTHING is going to be better 100% of the time. Nothing. All of this stuff has its set of strengths and “opportunities for improvement” when they’re compared.
4) In school and in your job it’s 100% guaranteed you’re going to have to either suck it up and do what you’re told or start looking for another opportunity. The choice is between “technical freedom of expression” and a paycheck. Your call. There are times when either choice may be appropriate.
Most of this is about how productive you and your team can be in providing effective services. And honestly – all of these tools are similar enough to be competitive. IMO, your analytical, coding, and personal interaction skills are going to make or break your success – not the specific tool you’re using at this point in your career.
Now I have to go back to my home project – all in PHP. And seriously – somebody PLEASE suggest a good debugging tool (with break points?) for PHP on Mac OS X. This whole “pray a lot with liberal use of try/catch” stuff is getting tiresome. Zend Studio? MacGDBp?
asp.net-mvc
At work, I use Microsoft Visual Studio to create ASP .NET webpages using C#.
I agree w/ ASP.NET as well. I began with PHP in college but grew into ASP.NET at work. I’ve never turned back. Using Visual Studio (VS) as an IDE makes ASP.NET superior in my opinion to other langs. Sure, there are other IDEs for PHP — Eclipse, Netbeans, etc. – but the IntelliSense (code-completion) for VS is really fast and robust. Also, ASP.NET is about rapid development. It has built-in separation of concerns and allows you to build things quickly.
Gotta go with PHP.
PHP 5
PHP all the way
That’s a lotta PHPs there…
Can any of you who favor it compared to other languages share why?
Started out with software development, and then progressed to the web. C# allows me to write both web and desktop apps under the same language, which is a nice benefit
so does php
http://gtk.php.net/
Interesting – wasn’t aware of that :)
I wish I knew a desktop programming language. It’s a shame PHP is so limited in that way.
@Ben (farther down the list…):
C is a desktop programming language that is very similar to PHP. Check it out.
In my experience (consisting of perl/cgi, asp, .net, php and ruby) it’s just the easiest to work with. It seems to have the most community contributions and open code libraries, best documentation resources, and when working with a team seems to translate well between different programming styles.
I’ve just found that in a fast-paced development environment I can build, test, and deploy a PHP app much faster than any other language.
Honestly, I would have to say that PHP is a contender for “ugliest” language ever, and it lacks many of the features you would expect in any modern language. They also have a bad habit of breaking backwards compatibility in minor ‘dot’ releases.
Oddly enough, however, I would also call it my language of choice… but for all reasons EXCEPT the language itself. As others have pointed out, the community is unbeatable, there are libraries and frameworks for any task, and its easy to get running. I just cry sometimes when I look at the raw code…
/hyper-opinionated-post-for-the-day
Agreed. PHP is an ugly language (is it str_str() and strsplit() or strstr() and str_split?) that tends to breed horrible code (I’ve looked at backslashed quotes until my eyes watered), but it’s available on every web server, and you generally don’t have to fiddle with permissions or need extra modules installed to use it, as we used to with CGI.
My language preference is Perl, so I use Mason on my own server, which gives me the power of Perl but inline like PHP and other benefits. But for other people, I use PHP because I know their server will support it and it’ll be portable if they change servers. Plus all that time spent looking up funky function names means more billable hours!
Agreed! As much as I hate php as a language, as much do I see my self using it again and again. The availability documentation and community simply beats everything. Even java.
Agreed. PHP is an ugly language (is it str_str() and strsplit() or strstr() and str_split()?) that tends to breed horrible code (I’ve looked at backslashed quotes until my eyes watered), but it’s available on every web server, and you generally don’t have to fiddle with permissions or need extra modules installed to use it, as we used to with CGI.
I’m kind of surprised to see so much love for the PHP documentation. I have one client who’s stuck at PHP 4.3, because that’s what Redhat ES supports, and it’s very difficult sometimes to figure out why something isn’t working the way the docs say it should. If there are clear docs that outline the exact differences between PHP 4 and 5, I haven’t found them. The comments attached to the docs are pretty hit and miss; sometimes they help, sometimes not. And online docs can never be as handy as perldoc -f.
My language preference is Perl, so I use Mason on my own server, which gives me the power of Perl but inline like PHP and other benefits. But for other people, I use PHP because I know their server will support it and it’ll be portable if they change servers. Plus all that time spent looking up funky function names means more billable hours!
I started out learning PHP as my first server-side language and it’s just grown on me. I have attempted ASP.NET, but still prefer PHP. I guess it’s just because of practise.
C#
C# (asp.net)
If you haven’t used ColdFusion… you should.
i hear you. CF FTW!
yeah :D
I totally agree! I love ColdFusion!
PHP but I would like to learn something new. Any new languages of the future?
You should check out Ruby. But don’t skip right to Ruby on Rails, learn the language first and then learn the Framework.
PHP, mainly because it’s readily available on 99.999% of hosting packages.
Wordpre… I mean PHP.
Cheer!
Yup! haha
same here!!
More people should definitely look at Coldfusion. It’s so quick and easy to use, but it capable enough for enterprise use.
You don’t even have to pay for it anymore. There are opensource projects like http://www.getrailo.org/ and http://www.newatlanta.com/products/bluedragon/index.cfm which in a lot of cases are actually better than Adobe’s offering!
PHP is newbie-friendly, has a lot of functions that make things easier for developers to code things that would be otherwise hard to code (like stream_socket_client and readfile), etc.
More importantly, I think PHP is becoming more and more popular because it is already very popular. Sites like Wikipedia and Digg use it, and people are all like “PHP is very newbie-friendly and easy-to-use”, so more and more people try PHP, find it at least not to be so bad, and thus have contributed to PHP usage since.
Facebook, the most-trafficked site on the internet, uses PHP for all of their frontend stuff (with lower-level compiled languages handling backend processing). ’nuff said. :)
For the average CMS site, I use PHP… Easy to deploy, etc. For rapid development of complex web apps, I use Ruby.
To me, the only sensible answer would be: “depends on the situation”.
Small, cheap website: go PHP
Big enterprise website: go Java or .NET
Need simple and fast Flash Remoting: go ColdFusion (php really sucks for remoting)
…
And even that’s a huge oversimplification.
How about facebook?!, it’s built on PHP.
My choice is PHP.
It’s not 100% PHP though. The frontend is PHP, but a lot of the actual workings are in lower-level languages like C++.
“a lot of the actual workings are in lower-level languages like C++”
That only happened recently with the introduction of HipHop, the parser they developed to transpose php to C, and was only done so they could decrease the size of their server farm.. it still worked before that change
I use PHP for most of my own projects and ASP at work.
php, x86 assembler, c and c++
Assembly code, now we’re talking! I mainly write web apps in PHP because of the wide client support for it.
We use almost always PHP. It’s easy, friendly and gives a lot of opportunities
I put asp, but I meant asp.net. that should really have its own option, as asp and asp.net are quite different!
ASP.NET is the actual framework though, not the language. You can write ASP.NET apps in any of the CLI languages: C#, F#, IronPython, JScript, VB.NET, etc…
But classic asp is a scripting language (written in vbscript or jscript normally). It’s very, very different from asp.net. I think that’s the point he’s making, not the differences in the flavour of .net
Easiest
O tried PHP, Java and Ruby and I like PHP the most.
Of course the usage of them depends, like Max said but… the poll and the post is for us to say which language we prefer, and I prefer PHP.
Because is faster to run on your own server (localhost) and has a bigger supportive community where you can find anything you are looking for really fast.
ColdFusion is simple, powerful and easy to read. Trying to read and make sense of any other language just makes my head hurt!
Your so right! ColdFusion makes everything super easy. It is not the only weapon in my arsenal, but it is my favorite.
PHP personally, JSP in the shop where I work.
PHP: It’s ubiquitous, has a huge community, great documentation, solid frameworks, low learning curve…
Also, I really want to try Ruby and Python.
PHP all the way. I’m surprised python is lagging so far behind though. I’m just getting started with it but so far I really like it.
I’m investigating JSP. Anyone has a good tutorial or experience with JSP?
We do everything in PHP atm with some HipHip from Facebook.
PHP at home / C# asp.net at work
ASP.NET (C#)
PHP
At work we are currently using ColdFusion and moving to ASP. On my own and whenever I have the choice, I use PHP.
I choose PHP
ASP.NET MVC C#
Python, specifically Django.
+1 for Python/Django. PHP is useful and easy to learn but it is hopelessly messy and illegible especially as projects get large. I don’t hate PHP, but Python I feel is a much more modern and thought out language. Plus OOP in PHP feels like an afterthought. In python it is OOP from the ground up.
I’m so glad someone mentioned Python … with the wealth of libraries included in it I think it should be used far more often than it is. Beside, Google use Python but not PHP in production.
ASP.NET. Presumably that goes into ‘Other’?
Most of the time I write things in PHP (only web applications), because it’s the language I know the best.
For desktop applications and scripts I use Python. And also for my own website, which is built with Tornado.
And I prefer Python over PHP.
C#
Oh lordy. I was the 666th voter..
Anyways, PHP for sure. It’s easy to learn and its simple to implement.
PHP for sure.
This is a bit confusing cause i use both PHP and ASP.Net and i love both not forgetting the power of C# like linq entity framework lamba expresssion etc…
PHP predominantly. Was a fan of PERL, but it’s a bit passe.
PHP, of course…
ASP.NET – C#
Ruby/Merb. Long time UI Engineer, been in ASP.NET, and PHP for most of life. Now working in Ruby/Merb and am asking self, “where have you been all my life?”
Scaffolding framework environments that support quick development and quick releases. Work in progress means nothing compared to work in production.
php (4/5), ruby, python. dependent from customer requests.
Been giving Django (Python Web Framework) a go recently, pretty impressed so far.
To be clear ASP is not a language.
ASP is the old technology which uses server-side VBScript and/or JScript.
ASP.NET is the part of framework and uses C#, VB.NET and modern F#, IronRuby, IronPython and so on.
Love PHP but I now get into Ruby!!
Never tried C# in Web Services but I should…
PHP all the way! :)
PHP for now, but started some Ruby recently!
This is going to be a no-brainer. But I would be interested in the results.
I personally like PHP by far, but CF is what my company uses, *pukes*.
I would like to get into Ruby some, maybe some python. But Php is what I prefer now.
PHP fits my needs for the last years; now switching to Java.
Noooo, don’t do it.
Think about this clearly: do you really want to have to recompile and deploy for every little change? Say “good bye” to your productivity.
If you need something more powerful than PHP, consider Python or Ruby. I really like Python personally.
Coldfusion by far…I have used PHP and ASP.NET and let me just say…PHP is my second but, ASP.NET makes my eyes bleed OUCH! Coldfusion is my favorite because it offers the best of server side while the basic code of HTML. Or if you prefer you can do it in script with the tag…very nice :)!
Opps the cfscript tag is the one to do script code in…my tag got removed sorry.
I work primarily on Ruby and Ruby on Rails. I’ve also done some work on PHP, but I prefer Ruby because it allows me to focus less on the code and more on making the application better.
I have to agree, though, that PHP hosting is less expensive and setting up a PHP website is dead simple. However, it’s up to the developer to choose the best tool based on the project and what language they are most comfortable with.
Thankfully, Ruby + Rails (or Sinatra for the matter) hosting is a whole lot easier with the cost of VPS solutions and passenger (amazingly easy deployment). PHP is a tricky language to write good code in.
There always is fastcgi for django and rails apps too.
I love both ASP.NET C# & PHP
php
I have worked in CF and ASP.Net (VB and C#) in my career. I think CF is easy enough, but is just not object orientated enough for me.
I prefer ASP.Net C#
I would really like to learn some PHP, because I think it would give me just another tool in my belt. I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard for me at this point… basically learning nuances.
But we all agree, I’m sure, it’s what the code spits out to the user that matters. :D
1. PHP
2. Python
3. Ruby
…
…
…
…
74574. ASP
php
PHP. It’s widely available, and it’s the one I know the most of.
I’m learning PHP right now, and it’s my first server side language, so obviously it’s what I use. I would like to learn how to code asp.net, but I can’t seem to find articles/tutorials/books on how to hand code it. I don’t want to use the IDE until I know how to adjust the code by hand as needed.
For me itz PHP.
I’m a newbie in any language, I tried many a times to learn C and C++, so went on administrative side IT sector. But there I started to think that I’m missing something and this not the task which I wanna do. I wanna do things myself.
So before some months I tried my hands on PHP, and it really helped me lots. And the most funniest part of it that Now I’m really easy with C and C++ too.
PHP is really very easy to learn. and very easy to grab things.
In C and C++ we used to includes files from the day one to make things work, and I never ever understand what that syntax for.
But by learning PHP now I know why we used that include syntax in C or C++. lol..
PHP 5 via Zend Framework.
Chris i think PHP will win at the end cause you are targetting WP PHP CSS etc… there’s no ASP.Net here
so the most of the people here will be PHP developer
am i wrong?
PHP
Python! I’ve used PHP for a long time, and suddenly I felt for a change. Python seemed like a nice, elegant and thorough language, and now I’m stuck!
If you haven’t already, check out Python (and perhaps even Ruby). Very versatile language, and easy to learn.
Yes, python is the best. It’s also useful for a lot of things besides web programming, like desktop programming, writing unix scripts, etc.
PHP in a heartbeat. More specifically, Kohana (PHP MVC framework – a PHP5 offshoot of CodeIgniter) and Drupal (with some WordPress in there now and then). If you haven’t checked it out, you really should. After having just worked on a .NET MVC project, Kohana simply destroys it. Plus, I’m impatient and lose far too much time sitting around waiting for .NET code to compile, so I plan on sticking with my PHP.
PHP, but ruby has been looking kindy sassy!
ASP.Net (C#)
I realy like the idea behind server-side JS. It could be easier to set up (yes, PHP is easier than everything else), but as I started to learn programming with JavaScript, this is the best solution for me. I know some Java (and I’m still learning it), but when you’re able to port JS-scripts from client- to server-side, you have high-performance scripts, not much work and fast solutions. I don’t know any language able to face this.
I like PHP because I know it the best. So its kind of unfair to other languages to make a judgment. But I have written small programs in Python and Ruby and I think that people tend to over-hype how “beautiful” the syntax is. I’ve never really found PHP code to be “ugly” like some people have mentioned. But I guess its a matter of personal preference.
The ugliness comes from:
Mobile (not type-specific) variables
Function-basedness (which is simply the paradigm it chooses)
The $ prefix trips some people up; I see it as a boon.
The period as a concatenation operator is far different from almost every OOP language, where it is a member selector (but you knew that)
Files are clunky in PHP too, I might add.
I went with PHP but I think it’s not because it’s better than anything else but just one I know and am the most familiar with. Like anything, it has it’s advantages and disadvantages but is becoming/is very common nowadays.
PHP 5.x
ASP.Net all the way. Like many, started with VB, but have now moved onto C#. I love it for both professional and personal projects. I’m able to prototype fast, and follow that up with a bullet-proof final product with little trouble. Visual Studio’s intellisense makes coding a breeze (but if you don’t have the $$$ to plunk down for that, I hear the freebie version isn’t bad, either).
Code re-use across projects is a non-issue, making rapid development that much easier.
While community support may not be quite as large as that of PHP, it has never let me down.
This is a wrong question to ask.
Neither PHP nor ASP.NET is better than the other.
It depends what kind of application you want to develop.
For high traffic websites, I would choose ASP.NET, it has a lot of ready made components, all nicely integrated.
For anything other I would choose PHP.
Also testet HipHop PHP from Facebook and I have to tell you it’s freakin’ fast, but it has it’s limitations also.
So my answer is to choose a programming language based on your project requirements.
But the question isn’t “what is the best” it is “what is your favorite”. Definitely there are good and bad choices depending on the project at hand, but this is just about preference.
Exactly as I read it Chris. This entire comment string is filled with ‘when you should use so-and-so’ when the question was simply which is your favorite!
Definitely PHP. I can’t think of anything I cannot do (server-side) with PHP.
php 5.2.11 with zend framework 1.10.2 the best!
C#, i don’t know what people’s salaries are, but C# pays really well and microsoft really has come far last few years regarding opening things up, free IDEs, codeplex, xbox development.
a lot of garage companies in silicon valley made tons of money using php, i’m just saying if you work for people and want to market yourself, C# starting and ceiling is higher.
PHP for me. I started getting into Ruby on Rails, and I really enjoyed it (though there is a little too much drama in the Rails community for my taste). I plan to take some time to get back into RoR, but for now, when I need to get a project done…PHP.
No question – PHP (object oriented if at all possible).
I would like to point out that PHP is not object-oriented; it simply supports objects. Big difference.
Concession: Yes, they made databases OO now, which I love. Function-based paradigms don’t make as much sense to me anymore after working in VB.NET so much.
PHP without a doubt. It is just made for the web and it is, relative to other languages, very easy to learn and use.
I have, however, had a “crush” on Python. It has such a sexy syntax and such, but for some reason I have never had the need to properly learn it.
my vote goes to coldfusion
Seriously?! No one here using Ruby on Rails or Python with Django? MVC frameworks ftw! Sad to see so many suffering with PHP and .NET still…
Both PHP and .NET have MVC frameworks.. PHP has a large number of frameworks in fact… Zend Framework, Code Ignitor, etc.
The first fully functional website I made was with ASP.NET, because it was required of me to use for a college project. I absolutely hated it. Using PHP with WordPress was a breath of fresh air and I haven’t turned back since. Much easier to understand and work with. Going along with that, between Apache and IIS, I prefer Apache hands down.
php with kohana, python with django
Although I know alot of people complain about PHP being slow / messy / ugly what ever. I still have to go with that for my favorite language, simply because its all I know,
I am fairly new to that side of things and it seemed the logical choice of a language to learn because I know for sure that clients are going to request that I use PHP / wordpress / drupal etc. so once I master PHP I will probably move on to something else like Pearl.
Yup. PHP is a fairly popular language–somehow; open-source stuff never tends to catch on in mainstream. Generally speaking, any web server worth its salt will support PHP.
And the syntax is very similar to C, C++, Java, any other {} language.
I really hate all the horrible generated HTML of ASP.NET, I personally just want more control. And I really can’t get my mind around the ‘the whole page is a form’ thing. It just looks like really, really ugly html.
But I do like C# though, nice clean language. I also like Python. Java, well, thats just java… PHP as a language is horrible. Everybody sais it’s so easy to learn, but the language itself isn’t any easier than say Python. I even think Python as a language is easier. The advantage PHP has is that you can upload a PHP file to just about any webhost, the huge community, and possibly the biggest pro for PHP: you can mix PHP code and HTML really easy. There’s no other language that does the same thing in such an easy way.
But as always just look at the right tool for the right job.
I’ll give some love to ASP.Net – VB.
I like Ruby as a language immensely. I use PHP the most because of the ease of deployment and general lack of dependencies.
I just wonder how many people “like” PHP, and how many people use it cause it gets the job done.
Python/Django because its clean, have an awesome philosophy (go read about it), and because i can use Python everywhere you can imagine, even on a device with limited resources. Not to mention the awesome libraries made with Python out there, that are easily usable on a Django project.
Not to mention Django’s template language…
Not to mention Django’s speed…
I went with Python. I love it for doing anything from a quick batch rename through to a CMS. That said I do find myself using PHP a lot more often for web jobs as much as I would prefer to be using Python.
PHP without a doubt. ;)
Jython = Python syntax + JVM = Win!
PHP for the web for me, but I’ve been wanting to try Ruby/Python for quite awhile now. This is a stupid question, but i’m just going to go ahead and ask it here.
Why and What could I use Ruby/Python for on the web? How do you deploy these scripts onto a web server? I know PHP very well and it’s quite comical just how clueless I am about these two other languages and what I could benefit from by using them.
PHP is my religion.
Server Side Javascript with Aptana Jaxer. Though it has no hosting support, I created an app on my own server using Jaxer. After a while I ported that app to the desktop using Adobe AIR + AJAX and I had to change only 20% of the code.
PHP by the way is my favourite.
PHP, but Python was my first real programming language ever, and I’ve always wanted to try web development with it. Maybe now is the time to give it a try!
What is a “real” programming language?
Must it support pointers? If so, then there goes VB. (ByRef notwithstanding)
Must it compile? There go most SSScripts.
PHP is my server side language and it’s beautiful. Many high traffic and popular sites uses PHP, e.g. Youtube, Facebook, etc. Also many popular CMS & Blogs make use of it, e.g. WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc.
похапе – говно
Java
My choice is PHP and I voted for PHP
1. Ruby on Rails
2. Django (Python)
3. PHP
I don’t like .net at all and still don’t know coldfusion. Ruby on Rails suits all my needs though…
Perl FTW
asp.net mvc in c# (trying to move away from webforms) and php when I can, just to keep my skills broad (if not deep).
Favourite? That would be hard to answer as it changes every few months! At the mo – PHP with Codeigniter as it lets me code in OSX, which is my platform of choice.
There’s no denying the brilliance of asp.net MVC though. A quantum leap over webforms for me.
Oh, and the inclusion of asp on the survey is a little confusing. Its not a language. What is it is an old nasty scripting engine – the actual language was vbscript.
Would have made more sense to put something relevant up there, like asp.net / mvc or even c# / vb.net :)
I’m very exited about this trend of DB native languages producing server pages.
Take this one, from Oracle: PL/SQL – Procedural Language SQL that produces PSP – PL/SQL Server Pages.
Even more: VSP – Visual FoxPro Server Pages. Who would’ve guessed?
I would love mySQL to have something like this, now that has been take over by Oracle.
In the end, DB is in the backbone for all site’s info or web app’s functionalities.
Java has been integrated by Oracle as an internal procedures language. It’s a step, but I still choose PL/SQL over Java.
I want T-SQL to do the same.
I like mySQL to take JavaScript and make it native. Who knows. But DB will still be around when PHP, Pyton, Perl, dotNet and others will become old news.
Let’s face it: we want standards AND diversity. Not sure how this can be achieved. Good old Basic may byte us in the ass one day, remembering us where we (all languages could) come from.
PHP all the way. :D
ASP.net for me too!
1) PHP
2) RoR
3) Python (Django)
…
∞) .net
Are you including WhiteSpace and Brainf*** in there?
nuh, I simply couldn’t count till ∞ to add them. I challenge you (AND Chuck Norris) to write and compile a web server in Brainfuсk. if not.. you can rap ;)
I’m using most of web programming language like ASP/ASP.NET, PHP, Perl/CGI, Ruby on Rails.
PHP for me.
PHP :)
Hi guys,
I’ve ALWAYS been a PHP guy. Big time. Especially since quite a number of great open-source apps are written in PHP, allowing me to edit them easily. Not to mention how easy it is to use PHP for simple scripting intermingled with HTML.
That said, I’ve recently begun learning Ruby and Rails concurrently and I’m deciding whether to use it for a web based large social media application I’m developing. I gotta say, Ruby on Rails is insanely concise, that alongside the instantaneous high-level functionality that rails brings… I’m thinking it may very well be the way to go. It’s blowing PHP out of the water based on my learning so far.
Any suggestions, opinions, etc for me here???
Thanks guys!
Eric
Really struggle with this question, I have wrote several apps in Perl, really nice functional language, done a lot of classic ASP at work and wrote a few web and thick client apps in .Net / C#. I have also wrote a few sites in php and use WP for all of my sites now.
I think it depends what your background is, i.e. .NET suits the classic VB6 winforms programmer as it is an easier transation to web development using a familiar IDE as in winforms environment.
While PHP is more suited to the web developer who understands the HTML/CSS document structures and tends to write apps in an enhanced text editor.
I am still not decided which Server side language to really get my teeth into and will probably dabble in PHP and .NET depending on the requirement.
There’s a typo. “CodeIgnitor” should be “CodeIgniter”.
PHP by a landslide its what i use
It says this is “sans-framework.” I assume your option for ASP means ASP.NET since ASP itself is an old server scripting language which has since been replaced and improved with the .NET framework. So, technically my preferred web language is …
C# (a la ASP.NET).
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Damn that’s a lot of comments!
Recently I have been introduced to the Zend Framework using PHP Object Orientation and the MVC structure.
I really like how the MVC separates everything into logically seperate layers of abstration within the website.
I can honestly say I will never code Microsoft technologies or use windows servers. I am a true Open Source supporter using Fedora Linux testing server, Ubuntu 9.10 installation for main PC and hosting on linux servers!
Long live PHP and Open Source!
JAVA
-MVC
-Servlets
-Struts
-Hibernate
-JSF
C# (ASP.Net)
PHP all the way.
Now using CodeIgniter. Testing Kohana.
In terms of what I actually like for a language, here goes:
1) Python
2) PHP
3) C++/Haskell
Of course any language you work with must solve problems relating to the applications it was designed in mind with. I’ve only done small websites and in learning programming, chose PHP because it’s cheap and efficient.
I think Python syntax flat out beats any C style language in beauty and I like the modules in that it can be extended indefinitely. Haven’t done nearly enough programming as I ought to be doing, but I plan to change that (in time).
PHP with CodeIgniter on OsX
Ruby is a funny language and easy to learn but the one and only is.. PHP! ;)
one good reason not to go with .NET ASP,
Its Microsoft.
When they will pull out there ugly nasty troops from the browser war (which they are proving time and again to be behind everyone) and focus on good things then maybe some good will come out.
asp.net mvc is a very nice framework which ever way you spin it. I agree with you about their past history and there terrible attitude towards standards. They helped stagnate web tech with IE6 for a number of years and their development of silverlight worries me a little – just a bit too proprietary for me!
Maybe at the upcoming MIX10 event we’ll see what IE9 has to offer. I’ve heard mixed things but it may well be a step in the right direction. Here’s hopin!
this poll should have multiple choices.
These days I use Smalltalk as my primary development language with the Seaside framework. I used to be a PHP and Ruby-on-Rails engineer but Smalltalk provides a so much smoother so much richer environment…
PHP is the only one I “know”.
I’ve been looking into making the jump from PHP (WordPress, MODx, etc.) to python and Django. One thing you notice is the Pythonistas’ disdain for PHP. I can understand it, but it’s a bit off-putting.
Sometimes I feel like I must be an idiot for actually quite liking PHP.
Anyway, now the sciencey people are talking about Haskell and Erlang and all those things, as the future of the web. I played around with Haskell and considered trying to build a web app with it. Luckily I saw sense.
I want to use a framework as well as CMSs, so the big question for me now is do I go straight for Django – or do I try out Kohana, CodeIgniter, or a hybrid thing like SilverStripe?
Anyway, the main thing is I’m not using ASP.NET any more :)
Why would you not like PHP? It’s a great language for rapid application development.
PHP.Because of the community & the CMS. woot
I think this poll is kind of useless because no one is going to vote for a lanuage they don’t know how to use, even if they think it may be better. A PHP developper who doesn’t know how to program in Ruby isn’t going to vote for Ruby even if he thinks it has some advantages.
Currently classic asp w/ VBScript but the shop is moving slowly to asp.net (VB).
I’ve started getting VERY interested in Javascript though and may try doing some server side JScript w/ classic asp. Am I out of my mind?? Maybe!
My personal favorite is PHP. Currently, I am learning Python to add some more roundedness.
Definitely PHP
php for my own projects
ruby at work, but I’m working only with layouts
I can’t believe so many people actually like ASP.NET.
I use python exclusively in conjunction with django or glashammer.
As usual, there is a lot of strange Microsoft hate.
I’m a PHP developer for most of the applications I write for the web, but I also write C# ASP.NET MVC websites for companies who are Microsoft shops.
I have used lots of other languages and the point is this. The language really doesn’t matter. Your skills as a developer are the important bit, not the myths surrounding the corporations and code-bases.
You can’t pitch up at a well established financial company and tell them to use PHP instead of .NET with some half baked comment about openness or security!
PHP 5.3 with a framework developed by me.
ASP.NET (C#…not VB.NET :p). After reading through ALOT of the comments, i’m not going to say why and why i prefer it, but if you google ASP.NET vs. PHP it’s interesting to see the speed difference for server requests – it’s on a Microsoft developers blog.
I prefer PHP (at the moment) but use Classic ASP in my day job (not my choice). I’ve been quite curious about Rails but just haven’t had the time yet to dive in.
PHP 5. my Favorite
C# – Linq is very nice.
I hate what I have experienced so far of .Net. Everything is so bloated and you have to learn the Microsoft way of doing things in order to avoid writing a terribly inefficient app. I also can’t stand the pseudo-ajax crap.
I’m a PHP fan, but I like the structure that a strongly-typed language like C# brings to the table.
I have only ever used PHP so I can’t really comment. But I like it a lot and have never had any problems with it :)
Ruby hands down. Having worked w/ ASP.NET at my old job, I can honestly say it is teh suck.
Lol…what basis do you have for saying ASP.NET ‘is teh suck’?
I wish people would open their minds and stop hating Microsoft…and if you’re in doubt check out the mix2010 video, even Internet Explorer 9 looks amazing, no-one can argue with this, whether you’re a php developer or a microsoft developer (seems to be the main ‘rivalry’).
I don’t think it’s just blind MS-hate. People who love the web are generally repulsed by technologies such as (old) ASP.NET, which added a whole layer of abstraction on top of HTML/CSS/Javascript.
Granted that HTML and CSS are deficient in many ways, and MS recognized that, but 1) they couldn’t see what was great about those technologies, and 2) their solution, WebForms, was not nice to work with, and seemed like an attempt to transform web development into Winforms development, and it didn’t work.
Given that heritage I can understand why people would shy away from ASP.NET MVC.
Well, I was forced to open my mind when they put me on several ASP.NET 2.0 projects, using vb *shudders*. Here are some things I didn’t like:
1. The syntax for vb and c# is pretty ugly. I guess this boils down to personal preference, but I find dynamically typed languages to be more expressive.
2. Documentation is pretty crappy. Sifting through MSDN’s documentation just left me w/ a “Thank you, Captain Obvious” feeling. Google didn’t help either, as I had to go through 10-20 forum threads to find suggestions, not real solutions, to the problem I was facing.
3. You’re tied to an IDE, well not all of the time, but most of it is going to be spent on VS. VS is not vim.
4. Using mocks and stubs in unit tests was pretty much impossible.
5. No MVC. Granted this now exists on ASP.NET 3.5, but it took m$ how much, 10 years, to adopt it? Java had this back in ’01.
6. Lack of a good CLI – well, this is more of a windows issue.
I could go on. I’m more of a Linux person, just so you know where I’m coming from 8D
PHP. New 5.3.x version has a lot of amazing features.
This is such a tight race, I can barely watch…
One day Google… I mean PHP will rule the world.
Groovy (on Grails) is a hoot. Terse, expressive, and can use Java classes directly.
Has to be Perl; it is very powerful, has many many web packages, simply, it’s the best choice, with clear syntax.
I love ASP.NET MVC (C#) and Ruby on Rails for End-Week.
Learning C#, i can write Desktop Apps more easy.
Microsoft today offers many good tools for free.
Their web frameworks today are all open-source, and contribute now to the jquery team.
They are doing a good job.
ASP.NET MVC is by far my choice.
It’s Open-source and maturing at a fast pace. There’s a brilliant Community with so many committed Contributors.
Its Expansibility means you need not be locked into the framework, if what is offered in the box doesn’t exactly meet your needs, plug in your choice tools and they integrate cleanly.
It integrates seamlessly with jQuery.
It’s perfect for Unit Testing + TDD.
I’m not really into vendor yada-yada. If a tool is good enough for my work and I’m comfortable with it’s paradigm , I go for it! :)
I’d like Common Lisp, I have to use Java
Java is best! It is a real language. The free web server Tomcat is written in Java, the free Netbeans IDE is written Java using the Java Swing framework. You write server side code in java, these are called servlets. You have a choice of many frameworks but the basic Java Sever Pages with the EL ( Expression Language) is all you need to make fats web sites that scale up. Java is compiled and is as fast a straight C code.
See my intro to Java web sites course slides and links at http://www.cdhconsult.com/course
Did I mention tiling is easy using the EL? See my course
Charlie
I feel PHP is the best.