Since you said you wanna handle websites, I think you should start working on HTML followed by CSS and Javascript. Once you master the front end then start enhancing your skills and work on any server side programming language. Since you said you already know a bit of Java, I would suggest you to master that instead of wasting time to learn a brand new language.
Best programming language?
- Thread starter WiredHappy
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Or a better idea, learn one and dedicate yourself to building something useful with it. Learning second and third languages isn't going to help until you have some level of practical experience working with the first one.
OR, OR, OR... Learn PHP and create a plugin for vbulletin that keeps jackasses from posting ignorant worthless posts because a) they have nothing useful to post, b) they need more posts before they can peddle their equally worthless services in BST.
HTML is not a programming language. 0/10 on the troll.
For backends...
If you're doing affiliate marketing, your best bet from a practical standpoint is PHP. The semantics of PHP are similar to Java/C# so you should be able to jump right in. The problem with PHP is that its easy to write poor code, so if you go the PHP route, it's worth learning several MVC frameworks (cake, codeIgniter, etc).
Another good option is Ruby (with Rails) or Python (with Django).
I don't see perl as worthwhile to learn unless you want to maintain legacy code.
For frontend...
Learn javascript without jquery first. Then maybe look at coffeescript.
Perl is good for a lot of things, but fuck perl for web apps. Saying you can't just google a problem with perl is extremely naive, because you can google any problem with perl just as easy as you can google it with <insert language here>. It's even trivial to google problems in obscure languages like D.
It might not be possible for you to make $100k a year with PHP, but I have and I'm sure there's other people here who have as well.
I started learning Actionscript3 and now I'm starting to think I jumped into a dieing language.
However exporting apps quickly across multiple platforms with Air is pretty sweet!
However exporting apps quickly across multiple platforms with Air is pretty sweet!
I would say this is accurate, but that doesn't mean there isn't money in knowing a dying language and maintaining legacy code.
There is no best/worst programming language to learn, there are only best/worst programming languages for a certain task, in your case C# and Java being less adequate for web programming as PHP or ASP for example.
What uninformed rubbish. C# and Java are extremely suitable for web development. ASP.Net (I think you meant ASP.Net, not Classic ASP - two very different things) is primarily written with C#, though VB.Net can be used as well (yuck).
I was going to post a troll comment about Cobol and Fortran, but instead I'll just contribute this worthless tip to the thread: learn SQL. There are 3 main web dev languages - PHP, ASP.NET, and Ruby. There is one really easy-to-use noob-friendly app dev language - Java, which also is useful if you want to write mobile apps from scratch. But there is only one main database query language that used pretty much anywhere an app or website interfaces with a database, and that is SQL. If you don't know the difference between joins, unions, and intersections - or if you don't know the benefits of using parametrized queries, then learn SQL in conjunction with either PHP or .NET. That would be a good starting point. But if you want to make $100k as a software engineer you'll have to be way more versatile than that. If you want to make $100k as a web developer, well all I can say is - Good luck bros!
Actually making 100k+ as a web developer these days isn't that out of the question.
The frontend has become much more complex and therefor salaries have gone up. I guess it depends on who you are working for, where you are located and how much you are willing to sacrifice to make it happen. On the west coast, especially in the valley... if you are a senior level developer and you aren't making over 100k you are getting screwed.