I've learnt every language in a basic form, some more than others, but without a doubt I will say PHP (and LAMP for that matter) is the best coding language to work with. I know PHP 3 + 4 like the back of my hand and I'm nearly done with PHP 5 and soon to be starting to learn PHP 6. The difference is ASP is limited and requires a lot of custom framework built, in addition to very infrequent updates so you will never be too sure about security issues and for this reason, not many (less than 10%) of new websites are actually built in ASP. The only other language I believe is worth knowing is C++ because of the similarity of PHP and the fact you can build computer software, games and many other cool and inventive things with it. It would take a lot of work for myself personally to be convinced there is a better coding language (both free and paid) if you take absolutely everything into account. PHP is simple, customizable and universal. As much as you think there is a better coding language out there, it just isn't true and that is not a matter of opinion. The fact that PHP is free and always will be and has a massively adored foundation that helps people build great apps, many people can expand on it so easy it's like learning to brush your teeth. As far as my knowledge goes, PHP releases the most updates because of its extremely large adoption and with sites like YouTube, Facebook and even Digital Point running of PHP it shows you many of the wonders of Hypertext Preprocessor. There is only one fault I would give PHP that other languages may solve: Scalability Issues. As much as PHP is fun, simple and an exciting language it does lack support for built-in scalability options such as backup and slave servers. However, I believe in the near future when scalability will be a massive issue it will be implemented and we'll all be happy.
No, that is just that - a matter of opinion. There ARE better coding languages out there but it is purely speculative and contextual. This question has been done to death already, and all you will find it opinionated replies like this, with no real insight into the pro's and cons. DP is a forum... hardly ground breaking, and if you think youtube is programmed in PHP, you need to do some research. Case in point: PHP was originally based on perl, and now has a lot of the core as C..... Given that C is a lot lower level (thus, faster) C is the better. Just because you don't know how to program in it, doesnt make PHP ultimately better.
Perhaps he was talking about best language on the web? And yes DP is a forum, but that forum software is used by thousands and thousands of other sites, used by thousands and thousands of other users.
I think the hint was in the subject? "Web development" No? thousands of users? is that a marker for "best web developement language"? So what about non-PHP sites that have tens of millions of users?
It looks like you need to do your research, YouTube was originally built in PHP and still runs on the foundation though it might be highly revamped because of the high demands YouTube has compared to any other website. If you want real proof to back up my argument (check the .php bit) - it works under that .php and won't under any other extension: http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=_OBlgSz8sSM If you look carefully, I said if you take everything into account. It has more pros than any other coding language altogether and properly outweighs the cons so it is actually the best, but if you want to be logical, then yes it is a matter of opinion. He asked about PHP, so I will not do a full in-depth 200 page book on every language with pros and cons so my comment represents his question and a small addition of my own as a sense of consideration. It doesn't matter whether a web application is groundbreaking, it shows that big, reputable websites are willing to use it over other languages - and plus, vBulletin which made this forum software decided to use PHP over the tens of open source languages out there in addition to Digital Point choosing it - and even you are using this website so it must be groundbreaking in the logical definition especially with more than 200,000 members which tens of millions of sites lack even a tenth of. Again, I said I learn all the free & open source languages out there in basic form and none of them show as much simplicity and customizability as PHP and even though it was based on Perl, it actually has more extensions to PHP than any other language and many libraries as well. C+ is lightweight so it's going to be the fastest but it's not customizable to the extent of PHP.
I think it is YOU who needs to do the research, rather than relying on guess work; http://python.about.com/b/2006/12/13/holy-web-apps-youtube-is-written-in-python.htm