I work in health care, but I have been learning web design on the side. I am very comfortable with HTML/XTML but now I am faced with a daunting task of deciding on which language to learn as far web applications are concerned. I started with three options: PHP, Python and Perl but I threw Python out of the list even though it is used on many robust applications. Python does not seem to be popular and I was afraid of running into problems when I needed a host of had question. Well, this leaves two options; Perl or PHP? PHP seems to have a lot of support that Perl but some blogs recommend the latter. Is security on PHP site that bad? I know it is easier to create and manage a php site using dreamweaver. As a seasoned programmer, what is your take on this? Thank you very much for your help.
With respect to speed, php 5 outperforms perl. With respect to security, it is as secure as perl if used under suexec/mod_suphp. With respect to available code libraries, perl has a larger collection but php has everything that an average developer needs. Besides that, php is a lot easier to learn.
PHP is an excellent language, and may be the best for web based applications. It is robust enough for just about anything, and can be as secure as anything out there. Most of the fallacies in php lie in poor programming and not in the language itself. It is still fairly new, but it is constantly being improved, and php5 meets most needs. One of the main issues is that the learning curve is so low, that there are lot of people without proper understanding of how to make well performing, secure applications. This is one of the reasons it has such a bad taste for many programmers. However in truth, poor programming in any language leads to poor security and poor performance. Of the list you provided, I would chose php first, then python, and perl last. Perl and some other cgi programming are a dying breed. Both php and python have a long and positive outlook in their future.
For a first language I would say PHP and jestep's comments about bad security coming from inexperienced coders is right on. I would disagree about choice of languages though. For web dev today I would do php, perl then python. For the reasons stated by the OP, python support,tutorials and code are nowhere as abundant as those for PHP and Perl. Actually I dont even consider perl or python a choice. It's probably PHP or ASP.
Well for starters it depends what your trying to make. Python (Django in particular) is very powerful, i believe digg and twitter are coded in it however its probably not a good language to learn if your trying to make small scripts. Perl can do alot offline as well, search the system for files etc.. very useful in some applications. But yeah.. PHP would be the way to go for a new coder.
Why do they have to be mutually exclusive? Why not learn both? Then you'll be able to make the decision yourself as to which language will work better based on the project you are working on.
After a intensive google'ing, I've got to the conclusion that every one with his perference, Use what you like more, PHP/Perl.