projectshome.devarticles.c#vsjsp

This is going to be me and C# vs Gaz and Rick with JSP.

Topics

• C# Namespaces vs JSPs whatever
  • C# has namespaces, packages and classes
  • A namespace can have 0 or more packages
  • A namespace, like a package can contain 0 or more classes
  • I dont really use packages much, I tend to just write a series of classes directly in the namespace
• How do they both handle sessions i.e. memory, file and database
  • ASP.net lets you store in all three by changing a few options in your web.config file, obviously you have to configure the file or sql options a bit more.
  • Since most applications I develop are aimed at small markets I tend to leave it set to memory. SQL sounds cool and adds another level of control of everything but I reckon the performance hit wouldnt be worth it for my current work.
• Deployability i.e. JSP needs a container but can run on lots of OS combos whereas C# doesnt need a container but can only be run on Windows out of the box 
• Database Communications, data binding
  • C# lets you communicate to almost any database using either premade components or via accessing the relevant sql classes.
  • It doesnt let you bind objects to database rows like JSP (which is a pretty cool feature) but this kind of functionality can easily be programmed.
  • Not all JSP setups support automatic binding anyway ;¬)
• Server compatibility i.e. apache, IIS etc
  • ASP.net is designed to run on a Windows platform although you have a choice of server to use.
  • The Obvious server has to be IIS 
  • You can also use Apache via the CLI project, I do this and havent really had any problems with it. One thing that is a bit funky is using page rewriting in .net but there are workarounds.
  • For other operating systems there are projects like Mono which handle porting .net. Mono says it handles Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, Windows, and Unix. Pretty cool eh?
• Not a question but a fact btw, developing in .net is FREE, using it in commercial projects is FREE, same goes for Direct X?, its FREE. There seems to be a big misconception out there that you have to pay to use these SDKs. Their both available on the Microsoft site as free downloads.
• Graphics – C# has Direct X?, openGL and GDI amongst others, JSP has what again?
• Hardware required i.e. .net runs ok any system that supports Windows / Windows? CE which covers loads of handheld devices. This is even counting the hardware you could use when implementing a system like Mono.
• IDEs
  • For writing C# classes I use the Free Microsoft C# Express ide. Its a cutdown version of Visual Studio 2005 that is specifically taylored for C#. Theres different editions for the different .net languges as well as SQL.
  • There are other IDEs out there but I havent felt the need to switch as the C# Express IDE handles all my needs.
  • The other “big” contender to Visual Studio is Borland C# Builder, I'm not fond of its price tag though
• Screw IDEs, what about hand coding?
  • Code by hand, I like writing the HTML and CSS with Crimson Editor and the relevant syntax highlighting files
• Tag interaction i.e. how you get/set tag data
  • C# uses events, delegates and properties i.e. getters n setters
• File system interaction
  • As long as the permissions and security options have been set correctly you can do pretty much anything
• Language updates i.e. .net has had 3 JSP has had more
  • .net is on roughly its 3rd version now; v1, v1.1 and v2 so its still kinda a new kid on the block how 
• Multimedia i.e. web cams, mics and cameras
  • Can do it all since you can access various hardware interfaces via .net
  • Can link them to graphics systems such as Direct X?
• Security
  • HTML form submissions
  • File system protection
  • Hack prevention

Ideas

• Do it via the comments form below
• Might do it via email, that way its already partially transcribed plus everyone can answer in their own time
• Also means we can all include demo code

Completed

• 17.06.06
• Buffed out questions
• 10.06.06
• Started picking questions
• decided to do it verbally and record it using my crappy old mp3 player/mic
• they both consented :¬)