Large website language?

[tleisher]

So I've started to work on a website that will (hopefully) have a very large userbase in the near future. This website is going to have a lot of user interaction (Mainly forum based).

I'm trying to decide what language and technologies I want to develope this site with. My choices are:

AJAX (Of course)
ASP.NET
C#
PHP/MySQL
Coldfusion

Ideally I want the website to run fast, with easy user interaction and a powerful language. I currently know PHP, and Im learning C#/ASP.NET but I can't decide which language would better for this kind of a website.

I've been told that for security, ASP.NET is better but for speed and efficiency PHP would be the better choice.

Can anyone give me insight? If I do develope in ASP.NET I would probably take an overall .NET approach to it.

[GreenDay2001]

Since you know PHP its better if you continue with it for makibg this site.

Ideally I want the website to run fast, with easy user interaction and a powerful language.

So PHP is the perfect choice according to your need and it runs on several platforms to. Coldfusion is much easier but is good for databases only..i think so. However you can continue learning ASP.NET.

[tgreer]

PHP and ASP.NET both do the exact same thing: render HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Therefore, one is not superior to another in terms of "security", which is largely a server configuration issue. Neither is one "better" for certain types of sites than the other.

You're using the wrong criteria then, in making this decision.

[tleisher]

I'm not saying those are my only reasons, they are some but not my only ones. The reason that I'm asking is, I don't know ASP.NET, I do know PHP... so I don't know what ASP.NET is capable of doing, and not doing and what it's strong points and it's weaknesses are.

[tgreer]

Since they both render HTML, both are capable of "doing" whatever anyone can do with HTML. That's my main point: they are two different approaches to doing the exact same thing.

I would say that PHP goes about it's business in a much cleaner and straightforward way compared to ASP.NET. PHP applications then tend to be more portable and easy to maintain. I think PHP also has a larger talent pool to draw from.

But in terms of overall capability: no difference.

[tleisher]

So both languages can do the same things with the same efficiency, speed and capabilities? Then what is the point in having two seperate languages? I was under the assumption that ASP.NET could interact with C#, and other .NET framework capabilities to make for more advanced and resourceful applications and websites.

[tgreer]

You can code ASP.NET in any .NET language, including C#. However, not all of the .NET Framework is applicable to web development. You can only do what a browser can do, and that same restriction applies to all web development languages.

The ASP.NET methodology is to set/get Properties, code event procedures, and call methods of objects as with any other object oriented langauge. However, the web isn't object oriented. So, Microsoft created a lot of "Web Server Objects" that use methods, properties, and events, to render HTML. It's simply a different approach than classic ASP or PHP, which is to script HTML directly.

Who's to say which is better? Well, me. :) I've coded CGI, ASP, PHP, and ASP.NET. I think smothering a complex object oriented layer on top of HTML is a needles complication. Given the choice between PHP and ASP.NET I'd choose PHP.

However, that isn't because an ASP.NET app can "do more" in terms of providing the final application more capabilities.