31–32 of 32 posts
Depends on your circumstances in part. Will you be doing scientific programming? Python. Graphical games? Python. Web apps? Ruby or Python are about comparable. Do you really really really want multi-line lambdas? Ruby. Do you really want to make DSL's? Ruby. Do you really want code that's easy to read and maintain years from now after it's no longer fresh in your mind? Python Do you want a language with a smaller nu…
If you really want to excel and learn, pick up Java. It is so completely different from PHP that you'll learn a tonne (and likely appreciate PHP more). The upside is that there is always a market for Java developers (not that there isn't one for PHP but it's good to have options). I'm sure that the script kiddies will bury this post and tell you to learn Erlang, Ruby, etc (which are all good in their own right) but t…
You don't mention why one should not choose Erlang, Ruby, etc, nor why one should in fact choose Java. That you also lump Erlang and Ruby together, two very different languages, with different advantages, and of completely different paradigms; further undermines the credibility of your suggestion. Your reference to script kiddies? The icing on the cake my friend.
He didn't ask what he shouldn't learn. He asked what he should learn.
I suggested that he learn Java because it is so completely different from PHP. That's all.