Finding a Destination for Classic ASP 2.0 Resources (Based on .NET)
I have a classic ASP 2.0 project. I am mainly doing ASP.NET WebForms and most recently MVC. Several years ago I made some ASP.
Do you have any recommendations for the book? If I find a book in 3.0, would that confuse me too much?
Any specific resource on the net for the speed you recommend?
Finally - do you think the transition will be from .NET to classic ASP? Will I struggle with concepts or do you believe this experience will allow me to hit the ground?
Thank.
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I spent many years developing in "classic" ASP before moving to ASP.NET.
First, I would say don't worry about resources (like books) being ASP 3.0, even if you're targeting ASP 2.0. For the vast majority of your development and code, they are virtually the same. Yes, there are differences, but ASP 3 from ASP 2 was an "iterative" jump (and not much of a jump). Just like (for example) VB9 is an iterative leap from VB8 (i.e. you can take everything you know about VB8 and it applies in VB9 - VB9 just adds a little more on top). IIRC, the biggest leap was ASP1.0 for ASP2.0, not ASP2.0 for ASP3.0.
ASP uses (by default) VBScript, which is actually a shorthand version of VB (VB from v5 or v6). During this time, the language changes were very iterative, so almost everything from VB5 applied to VB6. The same thing happens with VBScript (and therefore ASP).
The main difference between "real" VB and VBScript is that VBScript is interpreted. Because of this, all your objects will be late. Not excluding compilation type checking. No "compile time"! There's also no real type of system to talk about, it's all an option.
On the other hand, it's incredibly easy to get up and running with a simple ASP application, and you need a little more than Notepad (or some other rudimentary text editor) to create a simple ASP page that can be "run" on a web server. ...
One of the biggest problems with ASP is that there is no real separation between your label (HTML) and your code (VBScript). Each ASP page will essentially be some kind of static HTML caption where VBScript is "injected" inside, effectively acting as a "generator" for the more dynamically generated HTML. This can be somewhat removed when the application is small and / or not too complex, but for anything of medium size and / or medium (or more complexity) it can be a real burden of maintenance that application code and overhead are so intertwined.
Interestingly, I found a couple of links that talk about using (or continuing to use) "classic" ASP, even in "modern day":
8 reasons to stick with ASP 3.0 in 2006 (and 2007)
(a couple of years old, but mentions some of the benefits of ASP)
Classic ASP Framework - Create your classic ASP.NET-like ASP code
(a "framework" to be used with classic ASP to make it a little more ASP.NET-like - I've never used it, but it looks very interesting. )
Finally, for a good book on classic ASP, I would recommend:
Professional Active Server Pages 3.0
Active Server Pages 2.0 Unleashed
Also, be sure to check the MSDN pages for changes between IIS versions that will affect ASP:
ASP Features Changes in IIS 5.1
ASP Features Changes in IIS 6.0
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At the risk of being overwhelmed, I like classic ASP. For pages with low complexity, the flow of execution may be easier to understand. It is basically a code generator for HTML.
You will need to learn VBScript, which is actually VB6. You will also have to write COM wrappers for any .Net components you create (and you should create them so that as little code as possible ends up in an end-of-life development system like Classic ASP).
ASP.net books will be pretty much useless in your endeavors. Google will be a lot less helpful since most of the content there is .Net oriented. The last time I thought about ASP, I liked the book: this one . Good luck!
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