[monkeyhead]

Hi all,
Just a bit curious about ASP and what it really has to offer. Obviously its a coding language but what are the features of it that make ASP stand apart from other languages? Is it server side? Easily structured langauge?
Matt

[Nazir]

To participate in the Web application world, Microsoft developed ASP (Active Server Pages). ASP is a quick and easy way to develop Web pages. These pages consist of a single page that contained a mix of markup and languages. The power of ASP is that you can include VBScript or JScript code instruction in the page executed on the Web server before the page was sent to the end user's Web browser. This was an easy way to create dynamic Web pages customized based on parameters dictated by the developer.

ASP used script between brackets and percentages signs --<% %>-- to control the server-side behaviors. A developer could then build an ASP page by starting with a set of static HTML. Any dynamic element needed by the page was defined using a scripting language (such as VBScript or JScript). When a user requested the page from the server bt using a browser, the asp.dll (an ISAPI application that provided a bridge between the scripting language and the Web server) would take hold of the page and define all the dynamic aspects of the page on-the-fly based on the programming logic specified in the script. After all dynamic aspects of the page were defined, the result was an HTML page outout to the browser of the requesting client.

ASP evolved and new versions were released. ASP 2.0 and 3.0 were popular because the technology made it relatively strightforward and easy to create Web pages. Their popularity was enhanced because they appeared in the late '90s, just as dotcom era was born. During this time, a mountain of new Web pages and portals were developed, and ASP was one of the leading technologies individuals and companies used to build them.

Man, ASP is messy. We use ASP for our main product Teambinder. Im not part of the core devolper teamb but I often take a look at the source and its terrible. Cant stand it.

[shavei7]

how can ASP be terrible? it's not messy IMHO.. it depends on the developer. a really good developer can simplify and make the most complex solutions "readable"... something where you don't go "what is this variable about? what does this line do??" when you read the source code.

however, companies are already converting their classic ASPs to ASP.net so...