Such a Newbie it's not even funny

Ok, I've looked all over the place and havn't found aomething that really explained my question: What do they do?

What's the difference between PHP, ASP, Perl, Java, xml and the rest? What can you do with each of them? What language/technology was used to create this forum? Any recommended literature for each language/technology?

You have lots of questions which is great. There is a list of topics on the right hand side of DevArticles that will help you learn about each of these languages and what you can do with them.

Remember, the best way to understand these technologies is to practice using them to solve particular problems.

Thankyou. I havn't looked at this particular website's information as much as I should have before posting. I'll start my research here.

PHP, ASP:
PHP, ASP both for mainly information exchanging between web pages and database.

PHP is free but not object oriented (maybe PHP 5.0 will support true OOP features), and so, not suitable to build very big web project. PHP is one of the most used language among web developer.

While ASP is not free but good for developing big web project and ASP+ (or ASP.NET) is even compiled, so it is faster.

PHP virtually can be used with Linux boxes or Windows, while ASP, ASP+ strictly for Windows platform.

There are many more differences between these 2 languages.

PERL:

Perl can be used for the porposes that PHP, ASP performs, perl is also very suitable scripting language as an alternative for of diffrent shell scripting (K,C-shell etc), which exist in different UNIX OS. Its very suitable for REGULAR EXPRESSION, and still a great scripting language for developing CGI application across different UNIX flavour, and it comes free with UNIX OSes.

JAVA:

Java is a wonderful language to develop platform independent application. Its relatively slow in execution since it use platform independent BYTE CODE. Hard to develop computational intensive high precission mathemathical problems, because there is no shortcut way to develop code which requires COPROCESSORs (numerical processors) instruction to increase performance. Not suitable to develop device drivers using JAVA. Its also a suitable language to develop web services using java (which is probably the next Internet revolution). IBM, SUN investing huge research effort on Java for web services.


XML.
XML is used for exchanging data between applications across the platforms and operating systems. The best method ever discovered for data exchanging through standard protocol (http, ftp, smtp etc.).

Not sure whether I did answer your question or not. Please let me know if you have any specific question.

Thank You.

Thanks a bunch iahmed, that's exactly what I was looking for.

also, to add to ahmed's great info...

If you want to look into learning one of these languages your best bet is to start learning the syntax...how the code works and such. If you are very patient then read the php manual for php but it is very big to read yet covers 100% of the php language...

also, once you have gained some php knowledge try your hand with some tutorials and see how the writers made their sample scripts...i suggest you code your own scripts in any language rather than paste code snippets from loads of different resources to make one big script. this ensures you learn whilst keeping the work yours.

The differences between programming languages and scripting languages like PHP, ASM, PERL, JAVA, XML, HTML, etc, etc are just the syntax and what each language can do.. For example, I can write a script that will handle mail login and authentication in 80 lines in PERL, but write the exact same script and have it be as secure, if not more secure, in PHP in 8 lines.. it's like comparing the capabilities of Visual basic to the capabilities of Visual C++ ... each thing does its own, each has its own set of rules, etc..

This forum was written in PHP..

and for your last question, it really depends on what you want to do.. my suggestion would be to go to your local bookstore/library and see what you can find on each language and read a little bit about it.. read about web development in general and determine a few things

1) what are your basic requirements
2) what kind of site are you wanting to have
3) are you going to need scripts that can interact with both the web browser as well as the shell environment?
4) How much money are you willing to spend, if any? (quite a few of these languages are completely free, but some do have a cost associated with them, such as J++, ASP.NET <I think.. not sure, stumpy should be able to answer that though>)
5) What kind of coding style do you prefer?

Answer yourself those questions and you'll be off to a good start

Just to add - some of the above mentioned languages are more different than just syntax - some are Procedural, whereas others are Object Oriented. This is a major difference, as the paradigms between languages are very different, and something to take into account.

PS - Just to clear things up - ASP, ASP.NET (C#, VB.NET) are all free.

Thanks for that ammendment and FYI stumpy