Java Script or PHP?

Well, JavaScript will give your HTML & CSS 'behavior' - a lot of cool stuff to make your web pages interactive, etc.

Though I haven't studied PhP much, I believe it's a server side language. Obviously learning both wouldn't hurt and if that's your intention, I think you're good to pick whichever you like! : )

I'm currently learning both and I'm actually on the PHP Track here, which happens to include Javascript. :)

Maybe it's just me, but I've found that learning them together has actually made them both easier to pick up.

I would start with javascript. I found it easier.

Definitely worth learning the basics of both at a minimum. I would do the intro courses on them, see if either sticks better or is more enjoyable and then go from there on how advanced you study either.

I can make a site without javascript, but I rely on PHP to make my life easier. Javascript and jQuery make my sites beautiful, but PHP makes them functional.

thanks for the help!! sounds like good stuff that will get me closer to designing a functional website. looking forward to learning!!!

One important difference is that JavaScript will always be necessary on the client side as it's the only standard language used in the browsers. On the other hand there are a lot of different options on the server side - PHP is one of several - other alternatives include Ruby (for Rails), or... JavaScript (Node.js / etc). There is definitely movement towards JavaScript becoming a powerhouse on the server side. Just comparing on GitHub gives at least a rough idea of the number of projects for each language and the popularity (based on stars): Github search sorted by number of stars

No problem with learning both of them, I think it's always better to know more, but if you wanted to pick which one would be more essential - JavaScript would be the way to go.

Sure, one good resource is here on treehouse - a course called Git Basics that introduces the basics of using the program 'git' for version control. This allows you have an organized way to keep track of changes to files and adds powerful options such as going back to a previous version, collaborating with other people and easily merging in their changes to your project. A little bit of work to get started with git, but it doesn't take too long to get going with the basics. It is very powerful and quickly becomes an essential part of the development process.

Github serves as a central repository for source code files on different projects. Github has both a free open source side as well as paid memberships that allow files and projects to be kept private. Github has become the place for open source projects to host their source code. There are alternatives, but Github is the main place to go. Many developers, and open source projects especially, will use git to store a central copy of their source code files at Github.

Github is also a great place to learn about new projects, and evaluate the quality of open source tools/libraries/frameworks that you might consider using as part of your own projects. I find it helpful when I learn about key people in a certain topic, to follow them on Github to see what projects they are working on or that they find interesting (by starring a project).

When you get a chance, definitely take the Git Basics course for a good introduction.