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General Discussion

Jake Herron
PLUS
Jake Herron
Courses Plus Student 942 Points
Posted by Jake Herron
Jake Herron
Courses Plus Student 942 Points

PHP or JavaScript/Node.js for Web Dev

My goal is to become a Web Developer but I just can't seem to decide on a language. When I do my own research, I get so many mixed answers as to what has the best future, job growth/opportunities, etc. And I even read that WordPress switched over to Node.js. Does anyone have any input on this issue that might help me make my decision?

Thank you!

3 Answers

Jennifer Nordell
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STAFF
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Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse Teacher
Jennifer Nordell
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Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse Teacher

It seems like they are headed that way, from what I've read and heard. But I've also read/heard that it's not really going to be ditching php either. My advice? Learn as much as you can from HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP. JavaScript is spreading everywhere. Adobe (as I understand it) has slowed down on developing Flash. Why is that? Because neither Android or iOS support it natively. Your users are still able to turn off JS, which can affect how your site is presented, but anything in Flash will not run without special apps that emulate Flash. And I've tried a couple. They are slower than snail snot even on a pristine device.

Treehouse has some of the best courses I've seen on JavaScript. I highly suggest completing these two tracks:

https://teamtreehouse.com/tracks/front-end-web-development

https://teamtreehouse.com/tracks/full-stack-javascript

And then dive into PHP. Note that in the Full Stack track you'll also learn Node.js :smile: Hope this is useful someway!

Jake Herron
Jake Herron
Courses Plus Student 942 Points
Jake Herron
Jake Herron
Courses Plus Student 942 Points

Thank you so much! That's exactly what I needed to hear (or...read) I'll take your advice. I appreciate it!

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,148 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,148 Points

Wordpress at it's core is still php. I think what you read about is the newer Calypso which is a nodejs based client for wordpress.

With that said, php isn't going anywhere fast. Php is where I started, and it probably has the lowest entry bar. However, node.js has gained tremendous support lately, and it's kinda the cool, new, hip kid on the block. I'm personally 80% on the node.js train, and about 20% on ruby still.

I would do one of two things, learn node.js, or learn both. But either way, learning node would be a good move. And if you can learn node, you can learn php.

Markus Mönch
Markus Mönch
16,383 Points
Markus Mönch
Markus Mönch
16,383 Points

i just wanted to ask this question and got this thread here as suggestion to look at.

When you choose node.js I think there is no need to learn php afterwards?! Why you should learn both.

And I have an Indian friend who told me that the Facebook boss of India said that PHP is bad or something like that. In terms of large web apps PHP is not good. So I think you should make the full javascript stack track here and you have everything you need.

Im currently doing it. Im still at jQuery. The jquery course here is not so good. Mistakes in the videos and not cut out very well and not so good explanation. http://try.jquery.com im almost finished with that course and it is better explained there. hopefully after jquery it gets better again.