It’s absolutely alarming how many different programming languages one must learn just to work on websites. This fact alone has discouraged a few people I’ve talked to who want to start learning web development. A statement like “First, you absolutely have to master HTML and CSS, and then you should get very comfortable with Javascript, get familiar with databases and SQL, then start learning some server-side scripting like PHP, Perl, oh and some Java and .NET as well” is enough to scare anybody. The thing that frustrates me most is that the tough ones, PHP, Java, .NET, are all mutually exclusive. This means that you either become an expert in all three or only 1/3 of the work out there is for you. Right now, I’d say I have the first four, HTML, CSS, Javascript, SQL down pretty well, and I guess I’ll just forever be a student to learn the rest. Sigh.

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