[gregwhitworth]

I learned PHP with DIC's help and am now ready to move on (for various reasons). I have purchased some books on Java and am quickly seeing that it's primary purpose isn't for web development. I'm basically wanting something to take place of my server side logic that PHP is currently doing. I have seen people refer to Java EE and JSP but I am wanting some suggestions before I invest the time to learn it.


Please be constructive, and only vote on what you know. I am wanting to do a hardcore training of the language, but want to head in the right direction.

Thank you ALL for your help, and if you have a different language to learn please feel free to post it here!

[Martyr2]

Not sure if this really required a poll or not since all those languages you are looking at can run on Linux, all adhere to common programming syntax and architecture in their respective areas and all have their own strengths for why you might want to learn them.

Now I voted heavily for C# for a few reasons that may solve your problem or not... C# is popular, has a huge following, can be done on the web via ASP.NET but most importantly will then help you get into the .NET family of languages AND knowing C# will mean you can also have a desktop language under your belt at the same time.

Java would come in a close second here because while you can do web work with it, its strength is in its desktop/mobile capabilities but doesn't allow you to easily move into a whole family of other languages like C#. For instance if you learn C#, going to VB.NET or even F# is not entirely difficult.

While I am not a huge fan of ASP.NET as a platform itself, I can't deny that a lot of people use it and has a lot of developers behind it.

Ruby is ok and is pretty nice when using Rails... but it just doesn't have quite the same popularity as the other two languages you mentioned. I find Ruby is more of a scripting language with a functional programming slant to it.

But anyways, all three run on Linux. C# through the mono project. Ruby and Java have long histories with Linux. Ruby even comes preinstalled on a lot of Linux hosting plans.

[gregwhitworth]

Awesome, Martyr thanks. I will start learning C# then. I've played around with it a little, I just love Unix and don't want to part with it. Thanks again!

[anonymouscodder]

Quote

Which languages can run on Unix boxes?

C#

Java

Ruby

This is not much of a poll question, isn't it? And the answer is: all.

I second Martyr2's answer. C# is popular, got an amazing community (DIC itself and a lot of folks at stackoverflow.com), it's well design, amazing books about it, there are certifications around it, etc, etc.

Java is a lot like C#, but it lost a little of it fuzz (IMO).

Ruby is amazing, but it's way different.