Re: asp vs. html

Aline,

html - a markup language on a page which tells browsers what structual
elements are on the page - or, more accurately, what structual elements to
use when rendering content

asp - stands for "active server pages" - these are html pages with some
*server-side* scripting included on the page. The 'asp' extension alerts the
server that there are *server-side* chores to be done before sending the
page out to the end user.

The scripting language most often used with ASP is vbscript though
javascript, perlscript, jscript can also be used.

ASP pages can still include script for client-side tasks (most often
javascript). Any such *client-side* scripting is included in the file in a
different way so that the server ignores it but the browser takes care of
executing it.

So the answer to most of your questions is no, that's not what it's about.
ASP isn't something you just "add on" - it is a choice you make to develop
in a particular environment. Generally that environment starts with NT/IIS4+
but other platform/server combinations can also support ASP.

To paint in broad strokes, one might consider the following three options to
be exclusive alternatives when choosing an environment:

ASP
perl/cgi
php/cgi
(Cold Fusion)

That said, the last remark is not an absolute. One can use ASP with NT/IIS
and still also have some perl/cgi applications. They aren't totally mutually
exclusive. But then, you'd have to wonder why to mix and match. There are
reasons not to do so. One is 'why learn two tools that do virtually the same
thing?' Another is ASP tasks can be and generally are executed directly by
the server without a call to another engine which runs in a separate memory
space - so why take the performance and security hit with perl/cgi when you
can use ASP?

But that all gets into considerations that probably don't interest you at
this point. I mention this simply in a feeble attempt at completeness.

Regards,
Michael Gerholdt
SUNY College at Fredonia


> what is the advantage of using asp over html?  does it minimize the errors
> if you have javascripts, active x, etc?   i currently don't have asp on my
> webhosting option  so i was wondering if it is worth the added cost?
>

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