Hi, I have really enjoyed making up my own site - I now know how to code in HTML, javascript and perl, and I would like to take it further, but I am bewildered by all the different languages out there - what is worth learning and what isn't?

Eventually, I'd like to have a bash at learning a bit of everything, but I would like to know what the main languages I need to know to be a programmer are? I have seen Pascal, C++, VB.net (side question - is this the same as microsoft.net?!), Linux, Unix, Delphi (is that a language of it's own or is this to Pascal like Dreamweaver is to HTML? Haven't quite worked that out yet!)

Any suggestions or pointers to sites that may give me more useful information would be gratefully received!

Thanks

I would say the best to learn would be PHP & MySQL..

-James

Typical of you james to say that...But PHP and SQL is probably the best next language to learn. I personally can't get into it.

It depends on what you want to get into. I'd say there are two main 'sections': Web programming and software programming.

If you want to take your skills to the internet, then you'll be looking at PHP or ASP.NET.

Software programming is generally a little more difficult. C or C++ is probably the best all around language. For the 'next' generation of Microsoft development then you might want to look into the .NET language suite (C#, VB.NET, C++.NET... am I forgetting others?). I've used C# and like it the best (and that's the one that Microsoft is pushing for). It was created by Microsoft and beautifully engineered IMO.

Continuing what Chroder said, Java is not dead yet as a software engineering language. Though not as en vogue as .NET (C#, etc.) right now, Java is still doing a lot of heavy lifting in the software community. It is a very easy language to learn, I think, and affords the programmer with the chance to get a lot done very quickly.

For web programming, it's PHP all channels, all the time!

If you want to continue with web design then I'd reccomend (in this order) CSS, PHP, and SQL. PHP over ASP.net because of the platform constraints of microsoft languages like ASP.

If you want to opt in for a systems programming language, and you haven't done much in the past, then I'd go for a simple language like Pascal or BASIC. If you want to go for something more advanced, then go for C or C++. I would again, stay away from microsoft languages and go for OS independant ones. If you use Linux, BASH shell programming is a must.

Thanks for your replies!

I'm feeling greedy and want to learn it all - probably shouldn't run before I can walk though! At least now I have some starting points.