Jigsaw?

[IanMarlowe]

Jigsaw 2.2.5--anyone heard of it?

ECMAScript--what is that again?

SOAP--what's that for? Related to XML--apparently not a scripting language

XSL--The future of CSS?

CSS2--Is that new? I can't find any new features

Perl--what exactly is it? What do you need to use it? Are there any free web-host that offer this scripting language as a choice? (that are recomended by you guys)

ColdFusion--What the heck is it? Is it good? Does anyone here script with it?

PHP-PHP Hypertext Proccessing (that's a stupid abbreviation). Is it good?

ASP--does anyone like it? It seems it is good for Forums? Maybe? Almost all of the questions here are about froums.

.NET--Related to ASP? Is it any good?

XSLT--what the heck is it?

XPath--?

XPointer--? What are these things!?

[Twey]

• Jigsaw is a Java-based webserver.
• ECMAScript is what Mike calls Javascript due to the fact that all browsers support different versions of it, none the original Javascript, but they're all related to ECMAScript.

• SOAP Version 1.2 provides the definition of the XML-based information which can be used for exchanging structured and typed information between peers in a decentralized, distributed environment. SOAP Part1 explains that a SOAP message is formally specified as an XML Infoset, which provides an abstract description of its contents. Infosets can have different on-the-wire representations, one common example of which is as an XML 1.0 document.

• XSL: I don't think so. I think XSL is to CSS what XML is to HTML.
• CSS2 is newer than CSS1, but not as new as CSS3. CSS3 has been (I think) finished, but it isn't fully implemented in most browsers yet.
• Perl is a simple, powerful, interpreted scripting language, often used for CGI. You can get the interpreter here.
• ColdFusion is a non-free server-side scripting language from Macromedia. I haven't used it.
• PHP is a very useful interpreted scripting language with a recursive acronym for a name. Pfft... marketers. Unlike Perl, it was originally developed for use on the Web, and its features are based around that (although it can be used as an interpreted local scripting language as well). It can be very powerful if used correctly, and supports OOP.
• ASP... I've never used it. From what I've seen it's rather cumbersome. There seem to be a lot more PHP scripts than ASP floating about.
• .NET is a) Microsoft's clone of Java and b) something they tag onto some of their products to make them sound good. Not to be confused. a) is a compiled OOP-based language that, rather than compiling into processor-comprehendable opcodes, compiles into a sort of mid-state, called CIL (Common Intermediate Language). A .NET runtime environment (Mono or the .NET framework) then converts that to machine code and executes it. This allows for "language independance" (a class written in one .NET language can interact with a class in another, as they both compile down to the same ILASM code) and (theoretically) platform independance, although all the .NET languages are heavily geared towards Windows, Mono isn't quite good enough yet and Microsoft are in no hurry to produce a *nix .NET framework. An idea wholly copied from Sun, and, indeed, if you learn C#, it is very similar to Java. ASP.NET is one of the many languages that compiles down into ILASM.
• http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt
• http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath
• http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xptr

[IanMarlowe]

hey, I got the last three from w3c, I was wondering what you guys thought abouth them...Anyways, W3C explanations are far from adequate...

P.S if you read what it says in W3C, XSL is an XML, CSS mix that is the "future of CSS" or maybe I was reading too fast and got some things confused

[Twey]

The W3C explanations are a trifle technical, but very adequate.
Have a look at http://www.w3schools.com/xsl/.