Which language to go to next?

Originally Posted by ncmason Thanks, I'm looking at the PHP & mySQL for Dummies book. It's lookin' good so far. Thanks, Mason

Don't get anything from the for dummies series. The books are slow and the attempts at humor are poor. Get PHP5 in easy steps by Mike McGrath.

Originally Posted by trs21219 it also makes your applications run faster

Not normally true, OOP normally takes longer but its advantages outweigh the speed issues if you use it for the right thing.

Don't worry about OOP till it comes, large scale techniques wont even be an issue for a long time.

As for PHP and SQL, mysql will make itself apparent when the time comes. Working with databases is a large part of PHP so learn mysql when the time comes. It probably won't make too much sense until you have a practical use anyway.

Thanks man. I need all the advice I can get :-)

OOP is pretty hard to grasp and put into practice when you've learnt procedural based scripting/programming and have got used to it. My advice is as soon as you have grasped the basics of PHP, you should jump right into OOP as it has many benefits for large scale web apps.

Okay, I'll worry about OOP when I get there. Thanks again guys.

Objects are a part of PHP, but is considered more of a technique since it is never absolutely required. I wouldn't worry about that now, leave the advanced stuff for when you have the basics down. Most any PHP book will at least touch on it.

Okay. I've been heard about all these Flash/Flex developers nowadays. Is that worth pursuing ? And what about ColdFusion? I'm just trying to learn web languages that aren't too hard to grasp and will help me in the future (with making better websites).

Thanks,
Mason

Flash/Flex could be a good choice if you're fairly graphical orientated and can draw the various components you may need to use. I suppose you could borrow or take them from other places, but still.

ColdFusion is a fairly dead technology now, due to its price and the fact it doesn't really offer anything significant above other free alternative languages. Whilst it's easy to learn and use, the licensing costs often make it far less attractive to things like PHP. Very few hosts support ColdFusion, comparitively.

I am a very visual person, so I may take a look into Flex/Flash. But Flex is for creating desktop-apps...not for making sites, yes?

Flex is flash based and can be used to make a variety of different applications, that's right.

Thanks for the clarification.