Re: CGI vs JSP...

["Walden H. Leverich" <WaldenL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Aaron,

Given the original question, which seemed to revolve around a limited
case where a programmer could choose JSP or CGI I'd go with JSP, no
argument. But I'd like to address some of your points about ASP.NET
(surprise <G>)

>how recently they have entered into the enterprise 
>server market and how long IBM has existed in the space.

Um, just how recently do you think they entered the market? OK,
SQLServer 4.21 wasn't all that great, and 6.5 was a minor improvement,
but they basically defined the programmable web in the 90s, and major
trading floors run on SQLServer 7 and beyond with visual basic
applications. Has IBM been in the enterprise market longer, of course,
but my cell phone has more computing power and stability than early
"enterprise" servers. 

>The thing that doesn't appear until later is the scaling 
>problems and lack of options in the event you aren't getting what you
need.

What scaling problems? Yes, poorly written .NET code can suck, just like
poorly written Java code and poorly written RPG code. Most of the time
scalability problems come from a lack of understanding of how to code
the language for performance. Things like knowing that strings can't
change, and arrays must be copied to grow are common performance
problems, and actually show their ugly head in Java as much as .NET.
Scalability problems also show up when people think they can run
enterprise sites on desktop hardware. Just because ASP.NET _can_ run on
a $400 dell desktop, doesn't mean it _should_ run on that machine.

>but not the right choice for enterprise or potential enterprise
applications.

We can all have our own definition of "enterprise", but I think we can
also agree that sites like hotmail.com, intel.com and monster.com and,
obviously, microsoft.com get more than enough traffic to qualify as
"enterprise" and they're running on ASP.net.

-Walden