Tim_Tex wrote:
Burzum wrote:
Tim_Tex wrote:
How crucial is it to learn ASP.Net as far as job prospects go?
It depends... Do you want to write server code?
I will recommend what I always do for general programming: C++ and Python.
About what percent of Programming/Jobs involve writing server code?
More and more these days. Web apps are replacing all kinds of old desktop apps.
If you want to learn to learn web programming there's really no need to learn a huge list of languages. I would start by picking an MVC framework like ASP.NET MVC, Ruby on Rails, or Django, and learning whatever language the framework is in. Once you learn one, another can be picked up pretty quickly and easily. The hardest part is getting used to the statelessness of the web and learning how to recreate state for each subsequent HTTP request. An MVC framework should force you to learn how to do state management right, as opposed to ASP.NET Web Forms which have some features that are commonly abused by new web programmers. You will need to learn HTML and CSS, and also web design best practices (much harder than learning a programming language, IMO). You will also want to learn Javascript and AJAX (and how to use a javascript library like jQuery). You'll need SQL, too, but that's about it. It would be a waste of time to learn the syntax of a bunch of random languages. You're time would be better spent learning about new algorithms, data structures, concurrency, etc. in a language you already know the basics of.