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Server Side Programming Languages

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by rmg

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I am a web developer struggling with a difficult question I think all web developers face. Which Server Side Scripting Language should I learn first? There are so many to choose from, all with their advantages and disadvantages. Recently I have beenthinking about JSP, PHP and Cold Fusion. But I learn new information each day about other ones. I am not sure which direction I should go in. Has anyone else faced this problem? Can anyone help me figure out which Language is best? I would appreciate all responses.

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by tjc

You could start with the old standby to get your feet wet. Perl. That way you learn the basics and move from there. Also you could go with Active Service Pages (ASP).

I have no experience with JSP, PHP, Cold Fusion so I don't really know how complex they are.

Hope that helps.

by jay eckles

Call me a stick-in-the-mud, but I think the best foundation for server-side programming is CGI in C. C is a good introductory language; difficult to learn, but that's because it has many of the difficult concepts that will help you master other languages. If you really can't stand C, then as the other posterd suggested I'd go with CGI in Perl. So much of what you learn writing CGI programs is applicable to all the other server-side schemes like Java Servlets, JSP, PHP, ASP, whatever.

One possibility is that if you already know Javascript, there are ways to use Javascript on the server side. I think Apache has a Javascript module similar to mod_perl, and Netscape's servers supported server-side Javascript; I assume iPlanet still doesas well.

Good luck.

Jay Eckles
www.jayeckles.com

by ebob

A - It Depends
B - There is no such thing as "best"

I figure it depends on where you're starting from. A long time ago I was a Unix admin doing grep\awk\sed, then along came Perl, just as I was getting into web-related activities. So for me, Perl as a CGI platform seemed obvious. And now for ASP, I use Perlscript. There's lots of support (start at PERL.COM), which is nice.

I have worked a bit with ColdFusion. It's OK, but unless you work with it everyday, in a team, I think it's too easyto write BAD (mostly very slow) programs with CF. Well, I certainly managed that, at any rate.

Despite a lot of client-side JS behind me, I haven't dealt much with JSP, so won't comment.

Just my $.02

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