I know next to nothing about about programming. I have some various ideas for things that I would eventually like to create but I have no idea what language to use. Does anyone know of a list/ site/ book that simply lists all major languages and what they are typically used for and best suited to execute? Follow-up question would be where to start? All applications would be web based so what's a good language to start with? Is there a latin equivalent in the programming world?
If you want to program for desktop environments I'd use C, Java or C#. If you want to program for a website I'd use PHP or Javascript
I would suggest to learn PHP. check out the book php and mysql for dynamic websites. it has a companion website with all the scripts used in the book. If you learn PHP and mysql the sky is the limit.
I would still recommend Java for web programming, it takes longer to master it but then you can use it also for desktop programming. Other web languages that nobody mentioned so fare are Ruby (look for Ruby on Rails) and Python (look for Django). They give you the easiness of PHP with the object oriented stuff of Java.
Thank you all for your comments. I will start with PHP as recommended as I think that will offer me the best direct route to what I hope to accomplish. As far as RoR, how is the support base for that? Isn't it the newest? I do love what the people over at 37 signals are able to do with it so I will look into that also.