Help choosing PHP or .Net

[quartz70]

Hi everyone,
I'm in the middle of revamping my current web-based software for hospital information. I'm not a programmer and had a previous developer create my old version that is not around anymore. He wrote it in .Net

I'm looking to rewrite the entire program and have been looking into using PHP. I was wondering what everyone thought about using PHP for a web-based hospital software. I have been doing some research and seen lots of articles on both sides.

Currently the program uses Crystal Reports and our software accesses the hospitals servers remotely. Can PHP integrate with Crystal Reports? The hospitals that currently support our software are Microsoft servers. PHP can now run on a Microsoft server right?

All suggestions are appreciated, I am open to all viewpoints on PHP vs. .Net.

Thanks!

[gits]

at least it seems that you might use PHP's COM functions to be able to use crystal reports with PHP ... have a look here ...

and of course - PHP could run on MS servers.

kind regards

[Frinavale]

I would probably stick with .NET in this case (I'm not saying this because I'm a .NET developer either).

You already have a code base implemented...w hy discard of everything and start over?

And .NET works very well with crystal reports (never used them myself but it comes integrated with .NET and it is part of Visual Studio).

-Frinny

[gits]

so ... you would basicly have both of that options ... or better you could achieve that with .NET or PHP or even a combination. It depends on your specific requirements ... in case you don't need to 'rewrite' the curent application ... then you might build new functionality with PHP or .NET ... depending on the developers you want to pay or that you have to use ... just connect the parts to an extended system then ... when you need to refactor the entire 'old' software ... then i think that it depends on the 'need to renew' ... which means ... is it just a rewrite or is it a real new application? in case it is real new ... then you are a bit more free ... in case it is a plain refactoring ... i would stick with .NET since you might be able to reuse some of the old code ... but i think ... when you just have code without documentation and the original developer ... it is often useful to make an entire rewrite in case the software has serious issues and during that rewrite avoid to create the next one of that kind ... write down requirements, discussions, usecases, testcases and document the code as good as possible ...

kind regards

[shabinesh]

may be PHP is better if you think cost as a factor. LAMP would greatly reduce your cost compared to .NET which needs a licence for windows and developer tools etc..

[Niheel]

Go with the language you're most comfortable with and can quickly develop the application with.

[Samishii23]

I have been using PHP for aseveral years, and recently looked into .NET for web applications just for $hits, I didn't like it, yet I program in C# heh.
But yea. If you don't need to REALLY re-work what you have, I would suggest stick with .NET save you some down time.

But I would stick with PHP personally, as I believe you can have PHP run on most OSs out there, while I think .NET (prepares for possible flaming) is only for Windows OS? That right there could save you alot of money in cost of the servers.