What Language would you learn?

If you want to learn programming the first thing to learn is that language is what you program with, it's the tool not the skill.

The best way to learn is to use it in anger.
Something like Python might be a good start, perhaps few scripts to do various job related tasks.

An ex colleague of mine picked up programming from wanting to make use of network statistics being logged in an access database.

He did a sort of lanview type application, that showed him what the network had done out of hours.

You need to start simple, but you are more likely to self teach successfully, if you have something 'real' to do.

PHP or Ruby on Rails are only useful starts if you want to do something specifically web based. Personally I'd learn programming first.

Whether you pick up java, C#, Ruby or Python first doesn't really matter, HR to the contrary. If you can program, you can program. If the current market is the issue Java or .NET will do fine.

Ruby is a very simple, easy to learn and code in language. Ruby is a cross-platform interpreted language which has many features in common with other ?scripting? languages such as Perl and Python, and also just basic small talk. So you won't go wrong there.

Yes Rails is a great Framework to use when using Ruby, but not the only. You can use Ruby with other frameworks. But you'll have to master ruby first before learning how to develop in Rails. Take care and please do let me know of your progress.

You can download the latest version of Ruby on this link and I personally recommend a book titled "The Little Book of Ruby" to learn Ruby.