What language is best? Shall I learn?

Ok, which is better? ASP, CFM, PHP, or what?

I read some article about this in one of those posts. But I need to know which language to learn.. Which do you think would be the best? That is Easy to learn, Fast, Easy Database Intergration(that is fast), Easy language to get the concept of... I know a little ASP and Cold Fusion, I couldnt grab the concept for ASP, and Cold Fusion was extremely easy to learn, but with the Databases and the ODBC connection, it ran way to slow.. and PHP has a ton of hosts for low costs, with MySQL support also., but I dont know the langauge. So I just wanted to get your feedback on what you would prefer. Either ASP, PHP, CFM, JSP, Perl, etc.

Just post with what you would think would be easier and faster, and also support your statement with come comments please. Thank you

ASP is a Microsoft-only development platform. If you ever decide to change web servers or even server OS, then you will need to re-do everything from scratch. There are ASP implementations for non-MS platforms, but they are expensive and lagging behind in features/support.

Never heard of CFM. Anyone else care to comment??

JSP requires a hefty web server/Java application server to run. Also requires that you learn Java. This is not really a scripting "language" per se. I've never used it, so can't really comment on how easy/hard it is to use. Anyone else??

PHP is platform-neutral. It will run on Windows, Unix, probably MacOS, and several others. It's also web server agnostic. It's fairly easy to learn (I picked up enough to build a single-page website with collapsing nav menus in just over a week), and is quite fast.

Then there's Perl. I don't have anything nice to say about it, so I won't say anything.

The above are server-side scripting languages. Those are the ones you would be wise to concentrate on. Te beauty of server-side scripting is that the client web browser only ever sees standard HTML/XML. You don't have to worry about client compatibility -- just code to the standards are you're done. If anything doesn't render, then it's a client issue. Plus, the client will never see your scripts and won't really be able to figure out what your doing.

Java/ECMAScript and VBScript are client-side scripting languages. The entire script is downloaded to the client and executed there. This can lead to problems as each browser must implement their own Java/ECMAScript engine -- and there haven't been two browsers that render Java/ECMAScript the same way. Hell, there are problems with the Java/ECMAScript engines just between minor versions of some browsers (Navigator 4.77, 4.78, and 4.79 all have different JavaScript engines). This can lead to having to code multiple versions for multiple browsers and can seriously bloat your pages (nobody should have to download 100KB text files to see your homepage).

VBScript is similar, but only available on MS OS using MS browsers. Same issues as Java/ECMAScript.

IOW, your best bet would be to learn either PHP or Perl. My suggestion would be to learn PHP as it won't teach you as many (possibly) bas habits as Perl --> plus, it's easier to learn as PHP is strictly for scripting websites. Perl can be, and is, used for anything and everything.

CFM - Cold Fusion

Like you say, Cold Fusion is very quick, easy, and powerful (but like all others, it can run slow).
ASP runs best on MS products, and even then it's a bit touchy. So that leaves PHP,Python,Perl and a few besides. Personally I would say PHP as it's becoming de riguer as a server set up (*NIX/PHP/MySQL).

All else being equal, I agree with binky. PHP is fairly easy to learn, it's common, and it's a good place to start for branching to other languages with similar syntax (javascript, java, perl, c/++).
Otherwise, JSP can do some really amazing stuff, and if you're looking for skills that could lead to corporate employment, not free-lancing, I'd say JSP would be a very good learning investment.
I wouldn't touch ASP with a 10 foot pole. The only redeeming feature of the language is that it's easy for a VB programmer to learn (I'm not a VB programmer).
Cold Fusion is about the same as ASP for me. The server software is expensive and the deployment base limited. However, I have heard really good things about the language. You're looking for a first language, though, and I doubt you're wanting to go from CFM to HTML =)

Occasionally though you may well be asked to use ASP (at work here we use ASP and PHP, though I concentrate on the PHP side, and many ASP people now think PHP is the way they want to go). So in the end, you may well have to learn enough to get by in both.

The thing to learn is that most languages follow the same content:

variable.command, or
action(variable).

Even VB and C++ aren't worlds apart. SQL on the other hand though...

Not starting a holy war, but:

If all you want to do is create web pages, PHP is great. That's what it's made for.

If you want to learn a mature, general purpose language that also happens to be very, very good for web programming, then learn perl.

Comparing the two and saying that one is better than the other is pointless, they have different foci. It's like saying a jet-ski is better than a cruiseliner, it depends on what you need.

I use both, I like both. It's newbies that tend to get in these language duels, without understanding that a language is a tool, and your tool should fit your need.

But, a jetski is sooo much better than a cruise liner. One is a fun, fast and precarious mode of travel, while the other is ful of geriatrics and people doing cabaret... I know which I'd choose.

Good point re: Perl

Learn every language, it's more fun. And if you run out of new languages, then start on Spanish, French, German, Chinese etc...

Definetly learn PHP. It's a good first programming language to learn.

My knowledge extends from Java to VB with some heavy HTML and SQL thrown in. I've done some ASP work but I don't like that it's platform dependent. One of the things I like about PHP is the ability to access Java classes.

Walt

I just went through the same thing. I decided to go with PHP.
Why?

That's why.
I bought a book called BEGINNING PHP4. It is very good. Especially for someone who knows nothing (or very little) about other programming languages.
www.wrox.com

This is fine, but nearly all open-source web programming languages fit this description- perl and python certainly do. So does java. Some are even MORE agnostic than PHP- look at perl's very mature DBI.

PHP is a fine choice, but this is an incomplete reason to use it. It is, however, a reason to choose it over ASP.

By all means, add it to your toolbelt, but realize that it is just another tool.

I agree totally that all languages are the same in that they are a tool. I first started learning programming about 2 years ago. I began with a language that is not exactly newbie friendly, but no too bad. I started with Java 2.
The ease of learning any language depends greatly on where you learn it. When you are new to programming, there are certain principles that are essential to even understand it. A good tutorial or book (preferrably a teacher) will ground you in these first.
After reading in on Java 2 for a couple months, I got to a place where I was totally confused. So I started learning another language- Javascript. This is, I admit, only for web page and internet use, but it helped me get some good principles down.
Any language you choose is good to learn, but the big ones like C and Java can be daunting to start out with. I hope this helps...If you want to learn some introductory languages like Javascript, check out URL I learned a lot from that site

Most of the languages that have been mentioned are great choices. However, don't limit yourself to one language. The more of them that you learn, the easier it is to learn new, more complex ones.