What are the most common Languages, hot topics in web programming at the moment?

Question

Hi,
I am thinking of returning to web development but have been out of it for a while. Have done some little projects with PHP/SQL with some CSS/XML. Is ASP still used much? what other technologies are good to know how to use at the mo?

Many thanks!

Answer 1

Javascript will become even more important in about a years time as AJAX (the stuff Google Maps is coded with) becomes more mainstream.

I am sorry to say that ASP will never be a dominant language as it is Miscrosoft and about 80% of servers are Linux based. Many IIS (Windows) Servers can use PHP but few Linux server feature ASP. This does mean that a potential niche market will develop for ASP developers. The other problems are that you will be taught VBscript using ASP, linking with Access or MS SQL again restricting your options. I believe the main area of ASP use will be corporate businesses but that means your customer base will be limited.

XHTML/CSS is a must, it will become the backbone of all websites and then client side scripting via javascript and then some form of serverside scripting, this will most likely be PHP/MySQL combination.

The plus side is that if you learn one of the languages it make it soo much easier to learn others. Such as Actionscripting for Flash or JAVA or PERL or Ruby on Rails (technically a framework).

Answer 2

Well AJAX (Asynchronous Java and XML) is very hot at the moment - simply put, it allows you to update the contents of a web page without reloading the whole page. There are a few security considerations to note if you are going to use this for personal/customer data.

I use ASP.NET - for website back-end programming this is still a widely used technology, especially now .net2.0 is here and VS2005/MSSQL Express.

PHP is still popular too, and is widely supported and documented, which makes it easier when you get stuck.

CSS3 should be out soon, but CSS2 is the backbone for many of todays website formatting. No more messy tables or frames.

Knowing a combination of all of these and more, helps a great deal, although most things can be achieved with only one or two languages, each website is different. When you say to a customer you can design/update web pages, they do not know any difference and expect you to take on their PHP/coldfusion/ASP intermingled mess and get the results they are after.

Good Luck

Answer 3

I'm not a developer, but someone paying developers alot of money to develop for me...they are using SQL Server and ASP.Net v.2. Apparently these are the main skills nowadays, but tbh, it's all russian to me ;)

Answer 4

Ruby on Rails is very hot right now. Free downloadable RAD (rapid application development) system.

Answer 5

dont know