Which Programming Language(s) should I learn?

Question

I'm a digital media graduate with a focus in web design, but I didn't learn much in the realm of programming beyond HTML, CSS & Actionscripting in Flash. Most employers are looking for designers who also have knowledge of programming, but I don't know where to begin. I've learned a little bit of Ruby so I could stick with that but I don't know...are there other languages that would be better for me to learn or to learn along with Ruby? PHP, Perl, Python, Javascript (+JQuery)? Which languages would be the easiest to learn? Which would be the most beneficial?

Answer 1

Start with C++ or Java.

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If you want to me to be specific, start with C++, you’ll love it for the rest of your life.

Answer 2

If you are looking for good jobs prospects based on your graphic design skills then definitely stick with Ruby on Rails ("Rails" for short - Ruby is the language while Rails is the web framework that Ruby runs on).



The job market is weak for PHP, Python and C++. Java is a bit stronger, but Rails is THE hot technology.



Today's web applications are expected to be highly graphical (your expertise!) with heavy use of Ajax. Ajax is built into Rails! Knowing 'Prototype' is also helpful when learning Rails, but you don't need a deep understanding of it.



JQuery (an alternative to Prototype) would be a great-to-have and is the clear javascript leader. But Prototype is often used in conjunction with Rails.



To summarize - Rails is fairly easy to learn, you already know it somewhat and is a hot in the marketplace.

Answer 3

He might be trying to say that you need to learn programming techniques and logic, rather than languages. This really is important, too. For instance, being able to hold a conversation in 15 human languages doesn't mean you can write an outstanding work of literature in any of them; and a really well written program is much like a really well written book, in that it needs to have many parts that fit together in non-obvious but effective ways.

Answer 4

You really have to figure out what the companies you would like to work for use for web design. I would say PHP and Python would probably be more versatile than some of your other options. PHP is really easy to learn and you can pretty much do anything in PHP.



http://www.karlstechnology.com/

Answer 5

I'd go with Python. I worked a bit with PHP and it gets messy after a while, but if you are looking to develop websites, have a look into Django, which is a brilliant Python web framework that gives you fast development capabilities and a great deal of flexibility.

Answer 6

I think some sort of scripting language like python would be more benficial.



Also Java is good as a seconday language due to the fact you can embed java programs with web designs into browsers.

Answer 7

If you are looking to be programmer based of what employers are looking for, i recommend you look on job boards and see what seems to be the most sought after. IMO, if you are looking to get into web development, go with PHP. If you are looking into enterprise applications, look into Java.

Answer 8

If this is for a career decision, then I'd go with PHP or Java.

Answer 9

of course PHP and this is how i learned it http://bit.ly/cBR6kl