[thelist] ASP or DHTML - when to use?

[Luther, Ron]

Hi FayeC,

I know it wasn't intended, but I got a chuckle I badly needed this
morning out of your "plain DHTML".  Thanks - I needed that.   ;-)

Now on to your interesting question(s?)...

On the naming thing:  I'd say "personal style". I've done that (built
.asp pages with no asp in them) for two reasons - (1) To help me
remember that the file in question is part of an asp "set" of pages.
e.g. An html form that is going to get posted to a "real" asp page for
processing.  (2) As a 'vestigial' thing.  I may have had asp code in the
page at one time and removed it later - or planned on adding it later
and either never got around to adding it or changed my mind ... but was
too lazy to got update the links from elsewhere in the system.  

I think there might have been a second question here - a 'How do you
decide which technology to apply to a project?' kind of question.

Good question!  I think the (unsatisfying) answer is "experience". Well,
that and "pattern recognition", maybe.  The more projects you do, the
more things you try ... the more things you will find that "work" and
"don't work" -- for you.  Eventually I think you will (subconsciously
maybe) recognize similarities between the new project you are asked to
do and previous failed and successful projects.  That will probably
become your guide for approaching the new project... and you will become
faster and more adept at making those decisions.  Since all of our
experiences, failures, and successes are different ... we may all
suggest a variety of solutions.  I don't think there is a "one size fits
all cookbook".

HTH,

RonL.


<tip author="RonL." topic="ASP Forms">
On your ASP page that 'receives' the form data ... put a one-line
comment containing the name of the file that 'sent' the form data.

Once your system "grows" and you need to come back for maintenance and
enhancements ... you will really thank yourself later for taking a few
seconds to do this now!

** Another way to accomplish this is to get in the habit of always
adding a hidden field incorporating the name of the 'sending' page --
this can be particularly helpful if you have multiple forms within and
across various files all posting to the same place.  (It will help you
track down those 'spurious' "once in a while it don't work" kind of
annoying issues.)
</tip>

-----Original Message-----
From: Flavia Silveira-Tarzwell (FayeC) [mailto:fayec at canada.com]

I was wondering about how you guys define when a site needs to be
developed in ASP/PHP or just to use plain DHTML.