[SOLVED] php programmers are needed less than asp?

[asmith]

I've been reading some articles over the net and in the phpfreaks about the differences of php and asp.

 

If i sum all the things up that i've read, Maybe i could say working in php is better than asp.

 

The thing is, Sometimes i just get newspaper and look for programmers job... The thing is, always the asp programmers requested jobs is more that php ones.  Am i wrong ? What is it about asp that its programmers are more needed than php ?

[tibberous]

There are less asp programmers out their, and businesses, who are often times pro-microsoft, look for them.

 

The problem with ASP is that most companies looking for asp programmers aren't tech companies, their regular businesses than want asp to be able to tired their MSSQL database into their accounting records. While you might be able to get a job as an ASP programmer, it will probably be a suit-and-tie, direct supervisor, more maintenance than development type job.

 

As far as languages go, they basically go in this order:

 

[bUSINESS]

ASP (.net)

Java

Perl

PHP

Flash

[TECHNOLOGY/FREELANCE]

 

Keep in mind that I am mainly talking about the working environment than the actual use. I use PHP and the company I work for, but if I showed up tomorrow, in a wife beater, drunk, and told me boss that I had started celebrating our launch a little early, he'd probably take me out for drinks

[revraz]

Our IT Security won't allow PHP, so we are stuck with ASP.NET

 

I think it all depends on the company.

[corbin]

They won't allow PHP?  Why not?  Are they just too lazy to set it up?

[neylitalo]

They won't allow PHP?  Why not?

 

My guess is this: It's not included in the list of officially supported software to run on their Microsoft server.

[corbin]

Lol...  Gotta love companies that love Microsoft.

[The Little Guy]

ASP comes pre-installed on servers on the most common operating system in the world, so why add PHP to it, it already has a web language on it.

[GingerRobot]

ASP comes pre-installed on servers on the most common operating system in the world, so why add PHP to it, it already has a web language on it.

 

That's a pretty stupid argument. Most computers come with a couple of card games installed; why bother installing any other games? Windows computers come with IE pre-installed; why bother installing firefox? Because you prefer it you say? Yeah, but, IE was already installed...

[Daniel0]

ASP comes pre-installed on servers on the most common operating system in the world, so why add PHP to it, it already has a web language on it.

 

That's a pretty stupid argument. Most computers come with a couple of card games installed; why bother installing any other games? Windows computers come with IE pre-installed; why bother installing firefox? Because you prefer it you say? Yeah, but, IE was already installed...

 

Like it or not, that's how some people think. I believe The Little Guy was being sarcastic.

[GingerRobot]

Well if he was, then I apologise for calling his argument stupid.

[neylitalo]

There's quite a bit of difference between installing your favorite games on your workstation and installing, securing, and maintaining an HTTP server module in a mission-critical production environment. Admittedly, the IT Security team in this situation sounds like they just want to avoid doing the work, but there is a bit of sensibility there.

[asmith]

I've heard a couple of times from "non-php programmers"  :  "Ohhh hacking php is a piece of cake, ASP is damn hard to hack" .

 

and I was like "First time I'm hearing this, sir!"

Some people also pointed out "Why most big sites uses ASP?"

 

I guess php still isn't known enough to people.

[revraz]

IT Security doesn't set anything up, they decide on standards and security practices.  When a company has over 5000 servers, you need to have some type of standard.

 

They won't allow PHP?  Why not?  Are they just too lazy to set it up?

[The Little Guy]

"Ohhh hacking php is a piece of cake, ASP is damn hard to hack"

 

PHP is just as hard (sometimes harder) to hack as ASP, if you programmed it properly, so don't blame the fault of the language, for beigng easy to hack, blame the poor coder behind it.

 

My opinion:

The reason it is easy to hack is because it is free, so anyone can try it, and it can go on any computer, and it is open source. So... since any one can get it ages 1+, they have a poorer coding knowledge, since they are younger.

 

Another reason:

ASP requires you to set up variable data types, and only a specific data type can be stored in that variable, where PHP on the other hand allows your variable data types to change at any point and time, that means a user can submit a string, and the programmer wasn't thinking a string was going to be sent, he was planning on a numeric value, and if he didn't check to make sure it was numeric and was saving info into a database with a poor query string (90% of posts on phpfreaks board seems to be?) his database could be destroyed.

 

Example (poor):

$phoneNumber = "123'456'1234";
mysql_query("INSERT INTO phoneNumbers (`phone`) VALUES ('$phoneNumber')")or die(mysql_error());

 

Example (stronger):

$phoneNumber = "123'456'1234";
if(is_numeric($phoneNumber)){
     mysql_query("INSERT INTO phoneNumbers (`phone`) VALUES ('$phoneNumber')")or die(mysql_error());
}else{
     echo 'This is not a valid phone number';
}

 

Example (strongest):

$phoneNumber = "123'456'1234";
if(is_numeric($phoneNumber)){
     mysql_query(sprintf("INSERT INTO phoneNumbers (`phone`) VALUES ('%d')",mysql_real_escape_string($phoneNumber)))or die(mysql_error());
}else{
     echo 'This is not a valid phone number';
}

 

When getting data from a user, you should always check to make sure the data type is what you were expecting: http://us3.php.net/manual/en/ref.var.php especially is_array - is_unicode (from the given link)

 

Well, I think I may have gone off topic a little...

[Mchl]

In 'strongest' you check if number is numeric, so why escape it?

[GingerRobot]

There's quite a bit of difference between installing your favorite games on your workstation and installing, securing, and maintaining an HTTP server module in a mission-critical production environment. Admittedly, the IT Security team in this situation sounds like they just want to avoid doing the work, but there is a bit of sensibility there.

 

Yeah, sure there is. I realised my analogies weren't the strongest. However, my point was just that because something is already installed doesn't it any way mean it is any good and that no alternative should be used.

[The Little Guy]

That's a pretty stupid argument. Most computers come with a couple of card games installed; why bother installing any other games? Windows computers come with IE pre-installed; why bother installing firefox? Because you prefer it you say? Yeah, but, IE was already installed...

 

- I don't play computer games, so i don't install any other games on my computer

 

- You could be installing FireFox or Opera or another browser make sure your site looks good/usable in different browsers, since not all computers/operating systems come with IE (Linux)...

[akitchin]

i think the OP's question has been adequately answered, and it's now just veering off-course. i'm locking it.