Ask HN: Know html and php, which language to learn next and why? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Know html and php, which language to learn next and why?

6 pointsmangoleaf7 comments

Greetings all!

Thanks for all the tips and insights over the years.

I have been agonizing over a decision recently. My son knows html and php fairly well, and he asked me which language he should learn next.

His stated goals are to learn a language so that he can make mobile apps (games). Objective-C, Java, C++, or...?

So which would be best for an 11 year old? Which one is close to the logic structures of php? Which would be best for his long-term development given that his goals will change as he ages?

Much appreciated in advance!

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CSS and Javascript. Before writing apps, try writing simple web-based applications. For that, you need exactly 3 languages: html, css, and javascript. HTML for structure. CSS for presentation. JavasScript for behavior.

Beyond that, if he knows php then he should know how to do queries with MySQL. PHP and MySQL go together like peanut butter and jelly.

After that, I would move onto Java for Android development or Objective-C for iPhone development.

Just out of curiosity, what web apps are you thinking of that only require html, css, and javascript? Given, I believe there are some simple frameworks in javascript, but does anyone actually use just these three? Anything I can think of uses at least a database.

PHP and MySQL are back-end technologies. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are front-end technologies. All sorts of useful apps can be written that don't require a data source.

Definitely JavaScript - particularly its functional abilities (higher-order functions & closures)

Then Java would be good not because its great but because the JVM is great and Java will be a good intro to static typing.

Don't worry about learning it all at once; build things ss you go and have fun learning.

I'm a ruby developer (mainly web apps), but definitely getting more interested in mobile apps (so java and objective-c) as well as the benefits of node.js

I think for a kid I would almost definitely start exploring mobile apps. There's a lot more room for creativity there, with the touch screen interface, location aware apps, spatially aware apps (with the gyroscope), etc.

Ruby or Python. Why: because they're popular, well suited to web work, and will expand your skillset in a useful way (with new concepts etc.)

Or Perl if we're going down this route.

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