So I fancy learning a new programming language; any opinions?
The whole VB.NET thing never really took off (even though I'm still picking up the pieces) so I never even got to give that a real go

Any suggestions (and justifications ) appreciated!

what is the purpose of the exercise?
if its to strengthen your CV then Id stay within the Microsoft stable and look at either VB or C#, possibly ASP within the .NET.

if its to have a play, produce say some web sites then consider PHP & ASP

I dont think Web 2 & AJAX are credible replacements for conevnetional languages, but I think its a step in that direction, mebbe it will come as the technology matures, but if it does then there needs to be a heck of a lot more refinement of the development environment. Eclipse is a fine starting point, but way to complex for me....

It's for both really; CV and to play. I've done some ASP development in the past - it was a lot less challenging than I thought! I have taken a dip in the PHP pond too, more OO syntaxy if memory serves.

I've considered setting up a website for a while - so perhaps I should just give that a go!

--

However, If I want to head more in the application development / FE programming direction C# or VB might be the way I head (that's your cue to give your own opinions ). I'd need to get some more software for the home dev PC before I can run off and do that though!

Thanks for the reply Healdem

george, you beat me to it: my suggestion was to learn html to the point where you can build a web site and have it validate according to the strict doctype for html 4.01

Hehe Rudy... I code in xhtml
I use the term "code" loosely - I rarely get to play with web development stuff!

..obviously you are not a student so the academic versions of Visual Studio that are sold on EBay for around 25..35 wouldn't be an option

given your grounding in VBA the VB would be easier to learn, but some employers sneer at it. .NET is another level its certainly a lot more OO orientated

PHP can be OO orientated.. it depends on how you develop stuff. in many ways its a bit like VBA.. its very easy and quick to get meaningful results. but its power and simplicity can lead you to pish poor design which is a pig to maintain over time. Its too easy to get something up and running. The newer versions of PHP do support classes (not to sure about inheritance & polymorphism though. I know you can extend classes with PHP 5.

Id steer clear of things like Ruby & Ruby on Rails, at least until there is a clear market for it.

have you thought instead of going down the DBA route, and getting out of development (coding) altogether, or mebbe a hybrid analyst / developer if such a beast still exists.

i think you should unlearn that, and (re)learn html

the problem is, the biggest browser on the planet does not support xhtml

This might be an interesting link if you're thinking of switching to RUBY:

http://www.oreillynet.com/ruby/blog/...ck_to_p_1.html

Personally I would go with c#, but that's just becasue I like the language. There are lots of .php based web sites out there, so I imagine that would be a good way to go.

XHTML is compatible with HTML 4.01
The problem is, the biggest browser on the planet is by no means the best browser on the planet (Couldn't resist!)

Rudy, are you aware that Firefox is now used by nearly 35% of internet users?
Yes, I have indeed! But I do enjoy coding - I know I moan about FoxPro but I have to admit I love the ongoing challenges it gives me. I don't think I could give up coding altogether but I do want to move much further into the database design/maintenance/optimisation side of things.

*shrug* I guess I'll never really know what I want to do

I have to say - I had never heard of Ruby until this thread; is it really worth looking into?

firefox used by 35%???

i want some of what you're smoking!!!!!

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

UPDATE: I may have to retract my previous statistics for these http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php - Firefox gets over 25% of users.

I know what I want to do, but I can't find anyone willing to fund that!

One of these days I'll figure out what I want to be when I grow up... Maybe before I get done growing up!

-PatP

I told my career counsellor that I wanted to become a professional beach bum... She told me I could be a dentist.

There's a difference in the UK ?

-PatP