# Becoming a great web developer! **URL:** \ **Category:** Uncategorized\ **Created:** [October 2, 2004, 8:42pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/becoming-a-great-web-developer/66118 "2004-10-02T20:42:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hazza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@hazza](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/hazza)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 8:42pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/becoming-a-great-web-developer/66118/1 "2004-10-02T20:42:44Z")
hi! i am actually a musician, not a web designer, but i am interested in it and have taught myself some basic flash and html stuff to make my site: [www.beyondsound.co.uk](http://www.beyondsound.co.uk) i think ive learnt a lot and im quite happy with how the site worked out (although its still not quite done yet!) but now, again, i am restricted by my capabilities. i have seen the incredible possibilities php and java open up to the web developer and there is so much i want to learn and be able to do. my question is a simple one: what is the best thing for me try and learn first? my first thought was java, but then i thought - is it really still as usefull as it used to be? mabe php is the way to go… obviously, i need to have a basic understanding of all of them, but i have to start somewhere… as far as actionscript goes, i think i know enough to get by for what i want to do at the moment. well, anything you have to say would be great! also, any thoughts on my current web site? thanks very much 🙂 -Harry ---
**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 8:55pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/becoming-a-great-web-developer/66118/2 "2004-10-02T20:55:23Z")
I’d definitely say PHP. Java is more for web applications than for websites. PHP though is more comparable to PERL. It’s a server side language. I definitely use PHP more than I would ever be able to use Java, plus it is easy to learn. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 9:38pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/becoming-a-great-web-developer/66118/3 "2004-10-02T21:38:59Z")
> [@Yeldarb](#): > > I’d definitely say PHP. Java is more for web applications than for websites. PHP though is more comparable to PERL. It’s a server side language. I definitely use PHP more than I would ever be able to use Java, plus it is easy to learn. Actually, Perl is a full language as well, just like Java… it just happens to be used a lot for CGI. I use PHP mainly for web development, although I dislike it because I mainly use Python (which totally kicks PHP’s \*\*\* in terms of ease-of-use and consistency). I’d learn standards-based development next - see [http://alistapart.com](http://alistapart.com) - and PHP, purely because it’s supported basically everywhere. Java is much more enterprise level really 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 10:11pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/becoming-a-great-web-developer/66118/4 "2004-10-02T22:11:23Z")
Sorry, Python was what I was thinking of not PERL 😉 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 11:28am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/becoming-a-great-web-developer/66118/5 "2004-10-03T11:28:35Z")
thanks! looks like php is the way to go then! -Harry