Moving on to bigger things

And BTW, learning coding for the first time from web tutorials may be a good idea only if you want to fool yourself by calling yourself a programmer.

I'd get a decent book. Read some reviews first... I guarantee that if you find a good book it'll serve you for the rest of your life.

I learned PHP from the book "Professional PHP Programming".

Like I said, if you want to code proper PHP (OOP in PHP) then start with an OOP language. C# is my recommendation. Its best compiler (Visual C# Express) is free.

I started off writing in PERL. I found a very informative PERL tutorial that was also fun to follow right here. Once I knew PERL inside-out, I began applying what I knew to PHP, seeing as how PHP is rather similar to PERL, but less complex, or should I say less perplexing, in many respects.

Thanks Wildhoney, when I get some time I think I'll have a read through the PHP Manual: http://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php

Originally Posted by Wildhoney I started off writing in PERL. I found a very informative PERL tutorial that was also fun to follow right here. Once I knew PERL inside-out, I began applying what I knew to PHP, seeing as how PHP is rather similar to PERL, but less complex, or should I say less perplexing, in many respects.

Definitely easier to read in many cases. Perl may as well have encryption built in

But yes. PHP manual is where it's at.

I would either go for php or c# .NET - and it all depends on where your heading.

If you are looking to make small websites and applications etc, then I think PHP is the way forward. There are so many people out there using it, and so many things built with it (like VB), it is great to get things up and running quickly.

If on the other hand you want to move into serious development and looking for a career in a big company (I'm talking stock listed companies ) then I would go towards c# .NET. Most large companies are microsoft all the way and its really where the big money is.

You can also swithc over at any stage as the basic principles you will learn in coding are transferable, and you will learn a second language 10 times quicker than starting from scratch. Object Orientated Programming methodology is a very good thing to learn from the start as any decent sized application should use it.

A good book for learning php is http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTit...764579665.html from Wrox.

I agree with Big Zee there about being able to pick up new languages with a lot more ease. I've just completed a Visual Programming course at Uni (using vb .net) the techniques you use can usually be applied to a lot of programming languages - the only thing you'll really need to learn to be able to adjust is any changes in syntax which are often quite subtle. OOP is definately a habit you should get into right from the off too.

Just found this earlier this morning, gone through a few tutorials myself for javascript, but the php section looks very good.

http://www.tizag.com/

Sitepoint has a few good books. I bought one a while back, i recommend it.

Thanks everyone for all the information you have given me. I'm really not sure which programing language I want to learn; I have a little knowledge in Pascal but can't do anything major with it (calculations, conversions and a few other small things).

I would like to do programming as a career (I'm studying Web Development at College - I've just finished my first year. I should know my overall mark soon). The only thing I've learned in that year is a little Pascal. Next year we're moving on to PHP (We'll probably only have one class per week, and I doubt it will go into much detail).

So which language do you think would benefit me the most? In order to have a successful career as a programmer? And also allow me to freelance if need be.

Theres alot of competition with PHP as it is very popular.
You've got to put alot of work into making yourself known and keeping your clients happy. Its sometimes hard, but if you think you could manage it, give it a go.