I want to know which is the best language for server side programming, out of ASP, JSP, PHP & CGI/Perl

I know C/C++, and learning VC++ right now, so which one is similar to C/C++? I'll have to learn VB and Java after maybe, a year, so I guess it's better to learn the one(or two) which is similar to one of these, i mean in syntax, etc!

Also, what are the special features of these languages? Which one's the most powerful language for Server-Side Programming, and has the shortest code?

In short, I want to know which one's similar to one of these, is feature-rich, and is interesting?!! :)

And which one of those is object-oriented??

well, i use PHP with MySQL... everything that you see on this site is done in PHP.

however, it is mostly Linux/Unix-oriented language. If your server is NT, ASP would be the way to go.

you can learn JSP when you will be learning Java.

PHP is VERY easy to start and it is VERY powerful. Also, it is the most popular language for web dev... so i'd go with PHP

http://www.php.net

PS they are all Object oriented...

Thanks for your reply! Now I have one option lesser - CGI/Perl! :D Anyway, I was going to chose between ASP and PHP, so as of now, it's PHP! I'll go through the Docs on that site, but I'm in no hurry over this right now.

It's the type of server that's causing the dilemna, I'll have to chose between Linux Hosting/WinNT hosting and choose the language accordingly, in case I decide to put up a website after sometime!

Thanks a lot! :)

no problem...

set up a server on your computer fisrt...!! ;) easy, affordable and fun!!!

Of course, I'll have to set up a server when I decide to learn it! :)

I shouldn't be having any trouble with this, if I install on Windows. I was never able to find out where mySQL was installed on Linux, a few months back, so I had to set it up on Windows! :)

Let's see... I have Apache Webserver for Windows, mySQL 3.23 for Windows, and will have to download the PHP stuff from that site. What else will I need to set it up? This is enough, I guess. But will read the manuals later!