Well, i ran a few searches and this topic didn’t seem to be too over discussed, so sorry if it is indeed worn out. I’ve been learning PHP and I like it a lot, but the question arises - will I benefit from this in the future? Is PHP just as “acceptable” in the real world as something like ASP or ColdFusion? As far as flash integration goes, is one by far better than other? Like I said, I don’t really know ANYTHING about ColdFusion or ASP… My knowledge of PHP is beginner level, I made one thing so far which is an image gallery script http://www.dujodu.com/IMAGESCRIPT/ (that example is just the function being called swapping the source directories.) PHP seems to be coming pretty easily to me, I understand it well so far. So basically I don’t want to spend a lot of time learning PHP if in the long run I’m just going to have to learn ASP or anything else. Also, are the capabilities for them to work with flash fairly similar? or are there things you just can’t do with one that you can with the other? Sorry about the horrible organization and lack of clear subject, but if anyone could try to shed some light on what I’m asking I would really appreciate it.
PHP is a great Server Side Language. However it is not as mainstream in the professional level.
Private and business firms (in my experience) normally use ASP or Cold Fusion. The government uses mainly ASP and Cold Fusion. Several state level bureaus use both. As far as development is concerned…it is a Microsoft World. Unix is catching up very fast; but the majority of applications ran by private/state/professional workplaces (again in my experience) use ASP or Cold Fusion.
Independent design firms are more likely to be found using PHP or Perl to do their scripting.
Obviously it depends on what platform your server is running as well.
In the end, it comes down to what you can learn the easiest.
I personally have found that I need both ASP and PHP to get the job done. Programming principles are pretty much the same; you just have to learn the “words” that are used.
I would continue to learn PHP for a bit more; and then start in ASP.
A good foundational knowledge in both will get you far; because you will be able to work in both environments.
As far as flash goes; I see more stuff done with PHP and Flash; however ASP can work with as well.
Just my experience. I’m a geek so I try to learn it all LOL. 
Thanks a lot! That’s kinda what I thought about PHP as far as who uses it, or where it is more acceptable. I guess I’ll eventually have to learn some ASP, every time I learn a new language it gets easier anyway… started with QBASIC(haha), then Visual Basic, then dabbled in C++, currently mainly am using actionscript and learning PHP… so I guess it shouldnt be that bad… from what I could tell in my researching of ASP, it seemed similar to a lot of the other microsoft languages, so…
Thanks again!
I’d really get into PHP, coz the syntax is so similar to actionscript, makes it esay to pick up, plus soooo many free scripts online, and most host do offer PHP included;
then later on, depending on your business environment, i personnally would start with Coildfusion as it’s Macromedia and very well integrated with Flash/remoting/comm server etc,
ASP is microsoft, so you’ll never have to worry about support etc, and i guess they’ll push it as much as possible…
depends on the amount of time you can spend learning it all, but it’s true also that once you more or less master one, the others should come easy…
