Java and PHP?

Originally Posted by kac1022 Thanks. I head read somewhere to start with Java before PHP. I was not sure how important PHP was but I knew Java would be needed in some cases for sure.

There is a very important distinction to be made here. Java and Javascript have nothing in common. Java is a multi-platform programming language that can also be embedded as an applet (although those are becoming more rare for a number of reasons). Javascript is designed to work with HTML and CSS to provide a good looking experience. I don't see a reason to learn javascript first, while it is easier in some ways it is much harder in other ways (PHP hits errors much more elegantly).

PHP is used for server side coding, this forum software for instance is written in PHP. Server side languages execute on the server so the client has no form of access to it, this allows you to access databases and such that use passwords the client should not know. Javascript executes on the client's browser and is really limited to style stuff and sending off other requests. Since it can be seen and bypassed easily by anyone it should never do anything more than make life easier. If it's failure would present a security compromise it shouldn't be used.

In the end though its not very important, once you are an experienced programmer languages are only minor differences. I've been programming for about 9 years and to name a few off the top of my head I know PHP, C, C++, Java, VB, C#, Python, Javascript and CGI/PERL. Perl and Python I picked up in a single day not because I'm particularly smart or anything, but because they share the same concepts as all the others I know.

In your instance it is all about what you want to do. Server side programming is its own field, you can't just pick it up and treat it as a side project since security issues are at stake. If you want to get into programming do it but understand you are going to have to spend time getting good at it. Javascript can be trivially picked up as long as you know what not to do with it..