PHP Yes, but C++?

[LTG1]

I'm in the process of trying to start web based development moving from a windows platform.

Unfortunately it looks like this is going to require learning at least one new language from scratch.

Would the generally agreement be that PHP is the best bang for the buck to start as a first language?

Btw correct me if I'm wrong but C++ seems mostly useful now days for systems level work or client side work, and not applicable to most web development situations (unless you're working on apache).

thanks for any feedback,
ltg

[Cabhan]

So PHP is a pretty common web development language. It is nice that it integrates right into your HTML, and it still has all of the concepts that any other scripting language would have. If you want to do web development, this may be a good launching point.

The only other choice would be to use some sort of web framework for another language. Something like Catalyst for Perl, Ruby on Rails for Ruby, or Django for Python. These all let you do web development and keep separate parts more separate. They also can make database stuff easier to manage.

It's really up to you. If you're using this knowledge for an enormous project or business or something, a framework is probably a better option. If you just want to teach yourself and get acquainted with web development, PHP is a fine starting point, since you don't need to worry about setting up and using a framework.

As far as the C++ question, it used to be that C and C++ were used for web development through CGI. Nowadays, nobody really does that anymore. They are, however, both used for application development (so Apache, being an application, is a good example).

[LTG1]

excellent reply, thank you.

i wasn't thinking in terms of frameworks but now that you mention it it seems clear that productivity is hugely affected by the libraries/packages/environments you have at your disposal, regardless of the language.

php came up really because you see so many of the major projects using it like Joomla, phpBB, and tons more.

I "hear" about Rails and Django a lot, but not much about Catalyst. Maybe though that's not a scientifically sound rating method .

thanks,
ltg

[Cabhan]

Haha. Frankly, I only put Catalyst first because it's the only one I've ever personally used (though all three are conceptually very similar). And before I used it at a job, I had never heard of it either.

There are indeed libraries and frameworks for PHP out there: Cake and Zend immediately come to mind. So PHP is certainly an option even within a framework.

The nice thing about a framework is that it helps you organize and connect parts of your application more easily. Just writing a page with PHP still gives you a lot more power than HTML, but you have to manage a _lot_ of things to get the full power of a framework. Also, while PHP is a nice language, if you're using an MVC framework (for instance), you are able to nicely separate information-handling and display. And many people are better versed in other languages for doing regular programming.

Assuming that you're not immediately taking on some huge project, I think you can pretty safely go either way. The concepts that you learn will apply to either approach, and that's really the important part. Languages are easy to learn.