ASP: ASP is an abbreviation of Active Server Pages. ASP is a dynamic Microsoft programming language that became Microsoft's first server-side script engine for dynamically generated web pages.
Classic ASP or ASP Classic was first introduced as an add-on to Internet Information Services, or ISS, through the Windows NT 4.0 option pack in 1996. Later, it was included as a free component of the Windows 2000 Servers. It was included in the Windows Server package until ASP 2.0 from ASP.Net replaced ASP Classic in 2002.
ASP 2.0 contained six built-in objects: Application, ASPError, Request, Response, Server, and Session. ASP 3.0 came with a few extra enhancements that included the ability to buffer and an optimized engine.
Web pages that use ASP may be designated with a .asp or .aspx file extension, though some may scripting language to appear as .htm or .html for security purposes.
Programmers use VBscript to write most ASP pages, but they can select other Active Scripting Engines using the @Language directive. JScript is a common alternative from Microsoft, and PerlScript is a popular third-party engine.
All versions of Internet Information Services currently support ASP pages. ASP pages will continue to be supported, at least on Windows 8, for at least 10 years after the release of Windows 8.