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Originally Posted by ghstdrgns
Now you actually have three major players; .NET, PHP and Cold Fusion.
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Don't forget Java... and JSP... and ...
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Originally Posted by ghstdrgns
When it comes down to what you want to learn, while they are similar and you can easily move between each other without much difficulty, you have to ask what industry are you looking to work in?
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That's the real question; what industry do you want to be in? As for the language, anything you learn is an investment, and whether you get the job or not has as much to do with how well your resume is prepared, did you wear the right clothes, answer questions correctly, and are you someone's nephew or niece. Which language? Which country should I live in? Do I want to work with a large company, a smaller one, or do contract work and make some big bucks (at which point you can have "any" language and find some work, but the rainy seasons are much longer).
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Originally Posted by mojojojo
From my observations, proficient programmers will always get the results they need, regardless of the platform they use. The rest is down to personal preferrence.
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Well put, excepting the personal preference part ... did any of us learn our language based on personal preference, or were our preferences acquired along the way? Who was predisposed to learning a language based on personal preference, if you've never had any experience to judge it with?
I've worked with ASP for about 3 years, PHP for about 2, Javascript, VB, VBscript, Autolisp (for AutoCAD), have done some Actionscript and even some of Adobe's proprietary Javascript. I dabbled enough in ASP.net to know I can't afford it (and neither can my department at this point), and have dabbled in Java enough to know that I like the language, and I could (and probably will) continue to learn it, but for now, I can't stand the startup (load) time it takes for the computer to translate/interpret the code.
Aside from those points, ASP.net now has a stigma because of the instability that I found with ASP. My overall feeling is that I can communicate with and feel much more comfortable with PHP. I do believe you can get the same jobs done, and yet, for me, it's easier to do so with PHP. Unless I wanted to fork over some more money for training or videos or such to learn the new ASP.net concepts. PHP took me about 2 books and 2 web sites (
http://php.net and
http://phpbuilder.com) - 4 if you count
http://www.mysql.com and
http://groups.google.com
At this point in my life, I will continue to further my knowledge of PHP (and MySQL). I'll certainly be looking into the Mono Project too, but it will be in addition to my current skill sets, not in place of. And Java will always be in my scope as well.
Bottom line ... learn whatever you can get your hands on !!! Tomorrow they'll want TCL (
http://tcl.sourceforge.net/)