I work in ASP and Perl and ColdFusion for that matter, and I wanted to say that with ASP you can use other languages. I can do server-side coding in Javascript, VBScript, or Perl! I have done a few pages that were Perl running in IIS. ASP also allows for the use of components, compiled programs that are written in Java, C++, VB, Python, etc.
ASP also provides quick and easy access to databases, and ties right into the Microsoft Transaction Server to allow Transaction control over the whole entire ASP page.
I have used ASP to create whole sites and keep track of logons, Session state, and dynamically configure pages for users.
That all being said, it is not as flexible as CGI, and I personally find Perl more fun and powerful when used on the CGI side.
And as far as proprietary is concerned, Chili!Soft was released an IIS engine for Linux and for Unix, so you can run ASP pages with the full range of functions listed above on those platforms as well.
HTH,
Maurice | [reply] |