web development languages

bronzie

I am about to begin a 6 month contract and at the end of it I hope to be in the position to apply for a job as a junior web developer, I learnt php at uni and so thought it best to persue that but a friend told me recently that he would recommend learning asp.net and now I'm not sure and thought I would seek a wider audience, any advice would be welcome, really just trying to see what language would make me most employable and a worthy use of my time.

SemperFi

I'm a software consultant/programmer/geek. I'd highly recommend ASP.net and learn as much as you can about AJAX, it's being used more and more widely.

isofa

It depends on the employer, some like to stick to MS technology (ASP, SQL Server, VB and the like), others to PHP/MySQL etc, some like a mix. Have a look around the job market and also read Computer Weekly, this regularly lists the skills and salaries you can expect to receive.

If you know VB then you'll pickup ASP.NET in no time, you can download Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express Edition free from Microsoft to start developing.

Idiophreak

Personally I'd recommend going the MS route - Learn ASP.Net 2.0/3.0/3.5 and SQL Server 2005- I think it's more popular amongst bigger companies with bigger budgets (which probably means they pay their staff more too)...

PHP and MySQL tend to be popular amongst smaller and more "arty" firms.

Having a good grounding in either will give you a decent headstart in the other, though. Principles are mostly the same....Programming's all just syntax

isofa

This is the link to the most recent salary survey at Computer Weekly:
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/02/26/229572/it-salary-survey-job-market-bucks-predictions.htm

Cerro

Learn ASP.NET and learn to code it in C# (as opposed to VB) - less verbose and I just find C# easier to use... but thats my personal perference, though most online tutorials will be VB based. AJAX is very nice and easy to use. I have to admit MS have done a very nice job with the .NET framework, everything nits together nicely. If you get a chance, learn a bit about Sharepoint too - online co-lab stuff is becoming very popular.

Idiophreak is right, larger companies tend to lean towards MS technologies, unless they use alot of Java, then they mix and mash. Visual Studio and .NET are a godsend in my opinion.

bronzie

Thank you all for your responses, especially you isofa for the link to Computer Weekly the comparison chart was very revealing.

amcluesent

Also, understand good web design principles and why people abandon sites.

Recognise that programming is giving way to configuration, so know how CDM like Joomla! and frameworks like Struts work (and same for .Net world).

End-user created content is HUGE so understand how to build apps for Facebook, SalesForce.com etc. Folksonomies!

Google Gears - it could be the next MS Office.

Ruby on Rails - hot...

Bob63

Java and possibly Python