PHP or Java

[NWR]

Evening all,

I've been reading the site teams advice on programming and the language to start off with and it advises Java, but I'm wondering if this is still the best and would be suitable for my requirements.

I would like to build an on-line system where remote users can log in and see the documents that belong to them.

Also I'd like to have dynamic forms and a database.

Would you say that Java is still the best or is PHP more suitable for my requirements?


NWR

 

[berry120]

If you mean the sticky, it's just my advice rather than the consolidation of the site team

There's two (at least partially) distinct cases here - firstly you want to learn a programming language (I presume you haven't coded before) and secondly you want to code the system you describe.

If you're more into web programming in general, something like PHP may seem to make more sense on the face of it, just because it's the most common language around for that sort of work. However, it's worth taking a step back and asking yourself if that's the best language to learn with? You have lots of other frameworks, and could sensibly use all sorts of other languages - Java, C#, Python, Ruby, etc. So don't jump to using PHP purely because it's the most talked about.

Personally I'd still shy away from PHP as you're learning and come back and use it later if you have to. For reasons I won't go into as a language I find it rather annoying to use, and the habits it teaches you aren't the best either should you move to another language later.

Another word of caution, I'd start out with smaller systems if you haven't programmed before than the one you describe. For someone with near 0 experience that's quite complicated to build, and you may well find yourself just getting frustrated if you try to do it as a first project from the word go.