pinklife

Hello

I'm new here so I though maybe it's nice to introduce myself. I'm Dalbiez, I'm coming from Holland and I'm 14 years old. Since last weeks I'm having a problem, I can't choose the right language. I want to create web applications. PHP is the most populair language for the web but Ruby has a nice syntax.

Ruby

* Nice syntax.
* Friendly community.
* Nice web frameworks like Ramaze.


Of course Ruby has some cons:

Ruby

* Expensive hosting for a 14 year old teenager.
* Less populair than PHP.


Then PHP comes:

PHP

* Really popular!
* Lot of code is available.
* A huge community
* Has nice web frame works.
* Cheap hosting.
* I already know some PHP.


And the cons:

PHP

* The syntax is sloppy.


At the moment I'm more fan of Ruby, I really like it. Everytime I write PHP code I think "I need to write this in Ruby". But I want to be a web-developer when I'm older and PHP is more populair so when I'm looking to my future it's better to learn PHP.

Thanks,
Dalbiez and sorry for my bad English!

-Nick-

Hmm I agree with above points but don't know if PHP syntax is sloppy

Infact it is really less headache and one of the easiest one out there.

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mhdoc

You will eventually want to learn both, plus some others. So I would say start with PHP since it is affordable and popular and move on to others when you are ready.

Eric

Maybe I'm biased but... www.rorsucks.com

nasaboy007

im gonna have to agree in that php is much better than ror... your claim of php having sloppy syntax seems unsupported - it's much much easier/cleaner than some OOP languages and almost all the functions are selfexplanatory, etc.

learn php, master it, and then maybe move on to ror. almost all the jobs nowadays are people wanting work done w/ php (or some framework using php as its base)

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sdsinc

If you're starting out with web development, I think it will be more rewarding to learn PHP. Once you master a language you will feel more comfortable learning a second one. You could even specialize in Ruby as it is less widespread and there may be some demand for skilled coders - most webmasters should be more or less proficient with PHP nowadays, it's not exactly a rare skill

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fraktal

I asked myself the same question some time ago. I come from a 8+ years of PHP programming, and eventually grew tired of it. It's hard to debug, and hard to write good code.

That's why I was quite enthousiastic with the promise of Ruby being so good and powerful, etc... Actually I found out that what makes Ruby so easy and powerful is the Rails framework.

The language is cool, sure, but try programming Ruby alone without any framework and it's exactly the same thing as programming in PHP.

On the other hand, if you take PHP and add a good framework to it, like symfony | Web PHP Framework, you've got a very powerful solution.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/programming/591090-ruby-vs-php.html

So my guess would be forget ruby. Stick with php, but don't use it alone, or you'll soon be writing poor code. Learn a framework, it will be as hard as learning RoR, but at least you'll master a widely-used language.

And it seems that all the RoR craze is vanishing now. 2 years ago people only spoke of it, but now... PHP is as strong as ever, but where's Ruby ?

oarcadescript

I hate to throw a spanner in things, but try python, and more specifically django.

I've found it to be a fairly simply learning curve (i'm from a php background).

You've correctly listed the arguments for PHP and ruby, and your right, its not an easy choice.

(just to bear in mind: the php manual is excellent, I've found it to be invaluable).

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premiumscripts

I would choose ruby on rails, but if you go for PHP, at least save yourself some pain and use a popular PHP framework such as Yii, Kohana, Codeigniter, Zend Framework or CakePHP.