Hello World!
When you’re learning a new computer language, usually “Hello World!” is the first program you write. I think it’s much better than a simple “Test.”
Hello World! — watch out, I’m gonna learn something new.
This is my first blog post. I registered this domain name PHPMYSQL.NET several years ago to be used as a “playground” for learning PHP. But alas, too many other things happened along the way and I never got to sit down and really learn about PHP.
You see, I’m a Windows kind of guy… no, wait… I’m a Mac OSX kind of guy, I’m a switcher since 2005. I just got fed up with my Windows workstation that I bought a new PowerMac G5 computer and chuck my old Windows computer into the trash bin… literally…. but first, I had to throw it around, kick it and hit it with a baseball bat! Talk about getting all your anger out and beating the crap out of that Windows computer.
Back to the topic… even though I like love OSX as my desktop operating system, I am an ASP developer. I really like ASP, and I know and am very comfortable with Microsoft SQL Server, using it since SQLServer 2000 version. I can do *almost* anything with ASP!
If you trace the roots of ASP, it’s way way back starting from BASICA, QuickBasic, GW-Basic… these are the first computer languages I learned… no scratch that, APPLESOFT BASIC was the 1st computer language I learned, on an Apple ][ computer. But when the PC came out, I switched to BASICA, then Quickbasic, then Visual Basic.
Before ASP came out, I was already creating Win-CGI programs, using Visual Basic! It was a tedious process… edit in VB, compile, upload to server, and call your Win-CGI program from your HTML page. Developing and debugging was very tedious.
Then ASP came out… and it was a ta-da moment… now I don’t have to use Visual Basic to create Win-CGI programs, I can mix my ASP and HTML code on the same page! I got very good at programming with ASP and have signed up several clients as I started my own web design business. … you see, back in the late 90s, most “web designers” only know HTML stuff. They don’t know databases and making interactive, database-driven website. And with my knowledge of ASP, databases and making interactive database-driven website, I had plenty of work.
At the same time, PHP was coming out but due to my workload, I did not have the time to learn PHP. I thought it would die a slow death like Cold Fusion… BUT No, instead PHP became more popular and stronger… pretty soon, it can do things more *easily* than ASP can.
Microsoft abandoned ASP when they came out with ASPX and this .NET .CRAP. Again, I tried learning .NET and ASPX but I find that it was *MORE WORK* than necessary to create the same program in ASP! I don’t see the advantage in moving to ASPX. It just made things complicated and convoluted… without any clear advantages for me and my clients. So I stayed with ASP, and sticked with ASP.
I think it’s time for me to move-on… while I continue to support my clients with ASP/MSSQL apps, it’s time for me to start developing sites using PHP/mySQL.
This blog will document stuff I learned, so I don’t forget about it… and maybe, people more experienced in PHP can leave comments in my blog and help me learn along the way. I’ll also try to relate to ASP the PHP stuff I learn, so other die-hard ASP developers like me can also start their PHP journey.
Hello World!