What is the best programming language to learn for the web?

[tracerblue]

I have read through some java books and some c++; I've seen some information on c#; I found that VB is fairly popular... what I'm wondering is, which language is the best for web application. I want to learn programming, but I don't know which language I should learn. Any opinions would be helpful... Thanks.

 

[Richard Schollar]

Hi TracerBlue

I'll assume you're already familiar with html so you need to move onto building some functionality into web pages. I think an excellent place to start, especially if you are new to programming in general, is with JavaScript which deals with Client-side applications. It is a nice language to learn which will have application when you come to look at other languages (it is different from Java - they are definitely not the same).

If you haven't already, I would start with creating your own website and utilising a variety of languages in the construction (doesn't matter if nobody visits it - it will be a learning tool). Store information in a server-side database and use PHP to access the info. Utilise Perl in CGI scripting and some JavaScript as mentioned above - it will give you a feel for what you like and what you can do.

Good luck!

Richard

 

[Zack Barresse]

Ditto what Richard said. Just wanted to mention that you should check out W3Schools for whatever language you decide on. I started with HTML, then JScript, then VB, then DHTML, then VBA, then PHP... Just start going with it and see where it takes you.