Anti-php Bias In Tutorials

[CarpeDiem]

I notice in reviewing some of the tutorials, and after completing most of them and going through them a second time, that there seems a rather anti-PHP bias by w3schools in some of the tutorials -- not complete, but certainly there. When I look at this forum, I see lots of posts about PHP, so there is no negative bias here in the forum, but in the tutorials, there seems to be one in a variety of places! Why?For example:

• The JavaScript Advanced Tutorial ends by recommending ONLY ASP, but not PHP too or PHP as an alternative based on student need or choice (only ASP!).
• Two chapters in XSLT present ASP codes only and recommends studying ASP only, but skips PHP equivalent coding and does not even recommend studying PHP (like there's no equal time and almost like PHP can't do what ASP can do -- which is not true). The first chapter in this XSLT unit that shows an ASP-only bias is XSLT - On the Server and the second is titled XSLT - Editing XML. Again, both these chapters only show ASP code and only recommend ASP study!
• There are more instances like these (I won't bring them all up), but conversely, there are other tutorials that DO indeed present both ASP and PHP on equal footing -- so I'm quite confused!

Is this some sort of a pro-Microsoft bias in the tutorials (I ask since ASP must be purchased from Micro$oft whereas PHP is open source and free, so is there a pro-Microsoft bias in the tutorials)? I guess I ask since I run Linux and my webhost does too and my webhost does not seem to offer ASP -- so I don't think ASP will help me and studying it seems a waste of my time and energy in terms of my actual needs and websites. I know I'm overly sensitive about this, since it fits in with my needs, but I just expect that w3schools would (should) be more objective and offer equal time to both ASP code alongside PHP code at the same time, and in suggesting both ASP study alongside suggesting PHP study (both -- not one). Offering both tutorial code examples and suggesting students study both seems in line with the advertising revenue that is generated on the right-side of each tutorial screen, so what's being served by only offering ASP at times (unless Microsoft...hmm).Rant and rave! I know. But this is a call to improve the tutorials and make them more objective and accessible to all. This is not so much expressed as criticism as much as it is strongly expressed need (I need PHP!). Everytime PHP is omitted, it hits me in the gut ("my need")! These forums are great and speak to everyone's questions (well, when someone responds at all, that is -- which is not always, that's for sure). PHP is wonderfully covered in this forum and I'm grateful the forum structure is here!Did I miss something?

[Ingolme]

The reason they show more ASP is because that's what their server is using. They don't actually discourage the use of PHP in any place, they just have better resources to teach ASP with.

[jeffman]

You'll also notice that javascript summary page refers to DHTML. I haven't heard anyone but a corporate suit use that term in years. It's soooooo 1998. So maybe that page hasn't been updated in a while.Historically, I think ASP looked like a pretty good alternative to Perl when it came out, and a lot of developers committed to it and stayed committed. With MS developing it, it was a pretty sure bet. I believe interest in PHP developed more slowly, probably coinciding with the growing popularity of Linux servers and Apache.The school does have a reasonable PHP tutorial. I bet the site developers have simply neglected to update every page that might potentially link to that. So I think the suggestion you're making has more to do with keeping pages current, and adding references to other technologies. (Another example: The AJAX tutorial does not show a PHP server side.)You might post a calmer version of this observation on the suggestions forum, which is probably the only one the admins follow from time to time.

[justsomeguy]

Several years ago when I started coming here as a reference, it was only ASP. The family that runs the site started as an ASP shop, so at the beginning all of the articles were ASP-only. They've only recently (last few years) added PHP information, but clearly their own focus is with ASP.