PHP Question

[Johnny_Dangerously]

Can anyone help me,

a few years ago I used to do a lot of coding with ASP, using Jscript and want to pick up coding again. However, I have come to the conclusion that windows web hosting has gone down the pan and all the Linux is much cheaper, so I was thinking of learning PHP.

My question is, can you use Jscript with PHP? also, does anyone know of any good hosting plans?

Thanks in advance.

[DeadKenny]

PHP is it's own language, but basically the syntax is Perl (or Perl-like).

It's not that hard. Similar to JScript (or JavaScript in non-Windows world ;)), just with a slight difference in syntax. Both Perl and JScript/Javascript follow a 'C' style of programming so thankfully it's nothing like god-awful sloppy VBScript:gag: (though that means people who work in Marketing can't cope with it :p)

Coding PHP is a doddle. I'd say it's even easier than ASP and doesn't have the overheads that ASP has (i.e. it's not created damn COM objects on every call). Obviously has the bonus of running on more than just IIS and is cross-platform which is the most attractive feature.

[DB2k]

indeed. I like php too. very easy to learn a bit at a time. however as with all languages its easier to learn if you have a goal in sight.. making a web page do something specific for instance.

you can put Jscript in the html part of your PHP if you really want it.

I use catalyst2.com who give me PHP and a mysql databse.

[DeadKenny]

you can put Jscript in the html part of your PHP if you really want it.

That would be client-script. Correctly named 'JavaScript' not JScript which is the MS specific variant. I assume he means server-side script, as in with ASP you can write the server-side in either VBScript:gag: or JScript:thumbs:. PHP is kind of 'PerlScript', but you can't use JavaScript/JScript or (thankfully) VBScript:gag:... at least not server side. Client side you can use anything that works in HTML (i.e. JavaScript).

[Johnny_Dangerously]

cool, cheers guys. Yes I was referring to server-side Jscript which you can use in ASP. I think I'll give it a bash and see how it goes. The hosting is definately much cheaper.

I'll go and get MySql and PHP at the weekend and take a crack at it.

Thanks for the advice

[DeadKenny]

For hosting, how about PlusNet?

If you go for one of their ISP packages you can get 250mb of web space with CGI/PHP and MySQL support included.

Prices are as cheap as £4.99 a month for unmetered dial-up, or you can go for broadband if you like.

If you just want the web space I suspect you could pay for the cheap dial-up account and just not bother dialing-in if you don't want to.

Not sure about the dial-up accounts, but the broadband ones come with a xxx.plus.com domain name and static IP, plus you can transfer a domain in or use an external service to map a domain onto the web site.