A site dedicated for PHP development

The pages on our PHP site are written in PHP and not in ASP.NET.

WHAT IS PHP AND WHAT OTHER OPTIONS ARE THERE?

Php is a scripting language for building (dynamic) web sites. All web sites should be dynamic otherwise they are as most web sites in Cairns - namely "useless", as they have no artificial intelligence, and intelligence is what the Internet is all about as it form part of the Information Technology. Basically dynamic web sites use a database where the owner (our client) has a database with all his data in regard to what he wishes to reveal to the viewer of his site. It also consists of software that communicates between the computer of the viewer and the web site. When the viewer requests information, the software queries the database and gets data from it. It then uses this data to custom build a page on the server and sends it to the requesting viewer, who requested the page. Php is one of the languages being used in writing such software. There are many languages that can be used and they generally are:

• ASP.NET (C#.NET, VB.NET and C++.NET) - This is the newest, most powerful and best value for money. It is run on a Microsoft servers and we advice to build new applications on ASP.NET. It is also cheap to host. You can recognize web sites in ASP.NET by the aspx extension (like http://www.myweb.com/default.aspx).
• Classic ASP - The forerunner of ASP.NET, which is now completely out dated. The only time we would use it is to extend an existing application but not to build a new web application, as it is not as cheap and powerful as the new ASP.NET. You can recognize web sites in Asp by the asp extension (like http://www.myweb.com/default.asp).
• JAVA and JSP - Is a very powerful and professional way of web hosting. They are second best to ASP.NET, but unfortunately, for some reason web hosting companies charge more for hosting than in any other language. You can recognize web sites in Java by the jsp extension (like http://www.myweb.com/default.jsp).
• CGI (Common Gateway Interface) mostly using a language named Perl - This is the oldest system and now out dated. There are however still a lot of web sites out there who use it. Many web-hosting companies allow this to be used in addition with an existing language, may it be ASP.NET, Java, PHP or what ever. This system is a bit slow. Supremweb only uses it when there are already pre-made scripts on the server (as for example for mail functionalities). Otherwise we regard this system as from a by gone era. You can recognize web sites using CGI by the cgi extension (like http://www.myweb.com/default.cgi).
• PHP - Is a very popular language used on the Internet. Many web hosting companies host Php and many are cheap. Php normally uses a very specific database as a back end named MySQL. There are many web sites worldwide that use this language. It is freely available and that makes it cheap. Supremweb used to write in PHP until a much more powerful and faster to build technology came along, namely ASP.NET. Php is hosted on any Server. We very commonly use this language when we extend an application that was not set up on a Microsoft server for ASP.NET. Php has the lowest web server's hosting fee, but is only slightly cheaper to host than ASP.NET. The speed and price cut in ASP.NET makes hosting in PHP not worthwhile any more. However it is our preferred option it the web site already exists and is not on a server that facilitates the ASP.NET. Even though it is not as powerful as Java, it is still more popular than Java as hosting companies charge too much for Java, which is realy a pitty. You can recognize web sites in Php by the php extension (like http://www.myweb.com/default.php).

• Easy, cheap and fast to write.
• Are hosted on Linux as well as Microsoft Servers.
• Very popular, many hosting companies use it.
• No license required to host.
• Works excellently with a MySQL database, one of the best and fastest databases in the world
• The cheapest with web hosting companies.

We recommend the new ASP.NET because it is cheaper and more powerful to host. However if you already have a web site and you want to extend it, it will unlikely be in the new ASP.NET as ASP.NET is very new and on the fewer Microsoft's web servers.

The charges of hosting companies that host in Php are usualy very small and often hosting is only half the price than in ASP.NET. However it only pays if the application is small otherwise the price advantage falls short as it is more expensive to write Php than ASP.NET. This is not because Php is better, but because Php is not as advanced as ASP.NET.

JAVA is another excellent way of hosting and it would be second to the ASP.NET. Java is like ASP.NET namely "object orientated" and the finest web sites in the world used to host in Java. However ASP.NET has surpassed Java. We can only wait and see if Java will be further developed to come up with the same power and standard as ASP.NET. If so, we will consider Java as a real option. We can write applications in Java and Jsp.