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Ask HN: Best language to code a web app?

3 points by Bry789123 ↗ HN
Which programming language would be best to program new web app? I don't know any languages myself, however I want to learn. I did some very basic coding before and can mess with basic source code. I have never written any serious code myself though. I want to design a new web site/app. That will require a large amount of real-time communication between users. And yes I know I won't be able to pick it up right away, I simply want to be able to work with a programmer or a friend that knows how to code.

7 comments

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Ryan_IRL
I'm going to assume you're asking about frameworks as well since comparing PHP to CGI Python or CGI Ruby wouldn't exactly be fair (even though some people love to compare Rails/Django to pure PHP). This isn't a straightforward question, so I'm not going to give you a straightforward answer, but here goes.

Based on my experience of working with Rails, Django, Pylons, Zend, etc. I'm going to have to say, "It depends LOL!1!". If you're on completely level playing field with Ruby, Python and PHP I would say jumping into Rails would be a good choice since there's so much quality training material out there (and it's a really good framework if you can ignore the fan-boys).

Since you mentioned some real time stuff you might want to look into something like Tornado/Python (tornadoweb.org) though I honestly can't say if any other framework would prevent you from real-time since I don't know anything about your server/load.

If you don't know what MVC is, or think Models are skinny european women then I'd almost be tempted to say play with some PHP without a framework for a little while. This will let you get more familiar with processing a web form for example, or uploading an image without a framework telling you how they think it should be done. Get your hands dirty in other words.

I dunno, that's just my advice. Hopefully I didn't dumb it down for you but I had to assume you've never built a web app.

Bry789123
Honestly I am a complete noob to all of this. I am just curious what is the most versatile language and/or easiest to learn as a beginner.
Ryan_IRL
http://www.trypython.org/

then

http://tryruby.org/

If you like Ruby more, then check out Rails. If you liked Python more then check out Django and Pylons. Of course there are other languages/frameworks which are also excellent but these are languages with a lot of tutorials, and frameworks that have great communities and are industry proven.

Bry789123
Ok thanks. Is learning JavaScript through Coffeescript a good idea or a waste of time?
kls
Learn JavaScript, jQuery, REST and a back end language of your choice (Python, Ruby, JavaScript / Node.js) to implement your REST services in. These are the building blocks of a modern web application.
johnny22
find out what that programmer knows and learn that one :)

Most of them work well enough, so having a mentor if you get stuck is worth more than anything else.

Soupy
I would suggest using Python + Tornado (http://www.tornadoweb.org) for an easy-to-learn and lightweight web framework however it is very sparse in terms of documentation and there are not many guides out there covering Tornado yet. If you are up for the challenge then I say go for it; if not then I would suggest learning Ruby + Rails in order to get exposure to basic principles on web application design.

If you decide to go the ruby on rails route then I HIGHLY suggest getting Agile Web Development with Rails (http://pragprog.com/titles/rails4/agile-web-development-with...) as this proved invaluable to me when I first started out. Best of luck!