Hello,

I'm starting to play with web design and stuff and would like a recommendation from this knowlegeable forum on what is a good server side programming language. I've got some experience in Java running PC-based applications but that's pretty much it, never done applets or anything else. Also have been playing with perl and php. My use will be primarily creating records that will be accesible by only using a password, what would be the best way to accomodate that?

Thanks in advance,

I would recommend that you stay with PHP as a Server Side Scripting Language.
Very popular, very powerful, php5 is fast becoming the Standard of the Web.

Oh, yea, with Mysql as a Database, of course.

ASP.NET, PHP & CGI(PERL) are the most widely used server-side scripting languages. Each has it's own merits. PHP closly resembles C++ in syntax & is easy to learn. MYSQL & PHP are both free & equally powerful compared to other databases or server side languages respectively. Moreover U can more easily get Free & Paid Quality Hosting for Linux.

I too will recommend sticking to PHP & MYSQL.

Just to make sure you don't change your mind I'm going to recommend php as well. Not only is it almost used everywhere on the net it's also very easy to learn. I'm currently trying to begin to learn. Good luck!

Thanks for all the replies suggesting PHP. I've actually installed it at home to start playing with it and yes it seems pretty powerful. One of the first things I'd like to do is to have password protected pages, is it easy to do such a thing with PHP? Any sample code you could contribute? I'll keep on the look.

Yeah, it's very easy. Maybe you should download Macromedia Dreamweaver.