I think you have two major choices, C# with ASP.net or PHP. They are extremely comparable despite being very different beasts.

PHP is getting a little undeserved hate here. It's a solid language with a few quirks. Yes, you will need to master a few quirks, like understanding how to do good comparison logic, but it's not like you won't need to master this skill for Javascript anyway.

I would say ASP is too complex for a beginner. You need to set up IIS and configure ASP. You need Visual Studio. You need to understand C# very well, C# is a fully oop language, which makes it more complex than PHP. The biggest upside to using ASP is Visual Studio's debugger, which is second to none.

PHP is much more intuitive to a beginner. It has objects, but it's not quite as conflated with keywords... I would really recommend it for beginners. You can easily write a log-in mechanism with PHP and it's intuitive to open connections with a db to save information about your site. C# is much more involved (but don't get me wrong, ASP is very powerful).

CSS is something you may need to know if you want a "perfect" looking website. Javascript you will have to learn if you want any client-side script functionality. XML or JSON are "languages" you may also need to know if you need to pass any objects between server and client. It doesn't sound to me like you'll be need something this complex. HTML should be straight-forward -- and if your site doesn't need much more than a log-in page, then you can maybe hardcode the entirety of the site in it.

Oh, and while I doubt it, you may need to pick up a tiny amount of SQL. If you need to save information to a database, like usernames and passwords, you'll want to set up the right table structure, and understand how to make the database secure. Don't put any raw SQL on this group's site, do read up best practices for that.

At my place of work, I have seen first-hand the same beginners pick up PHP with ease and struggle with C#. There might be additional barries I don't quite "get".

The only reason you should use PHP/C# is if you need a dynamic site.

 

I really do appreciate all the advice and help here.

The last time I was into actually learning a computer language, I was typing:

10 print "I am writing code for a computer!"

20 goto 10

on my brand new Adam Computer.

 

Gah!



I think I've started anything web development related with PHP, and it is a shitty thing to use, although it was what helped to build the base of my programming skill to use other, better tools.

Although, be warned (again), if you choose to start with PHP, you might soon find yourself coding bullshit solutions for bullshit reasons and growing into terrible habits you will be hard pressed to leave behind whenever you move on to something more professional.



There's no other good way of raising your abilities than trying, though. Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

I was taught PHP as a module in university recently, and took to it about as well as a brick to water. I think this is the problem for me - being taught it formally, they placed such a heavy emphasis on security and the need to produce something maintainable that even the very first thing I did in it was 80% bullshit bullet-proofing measures and 20% solution.

I don't think there's much coming back from that; PHP will always be on my shit-list. Is there anything you PHP lovers could show me that would make me change my perspective?

 

Nobody actually loves PHP, but this, essentially.