If you're a real newbie, then perhaps PHP is the better choice -- not because of complexity, but because of the lack of proper rigidity enforced in getting star

If you're a real newbie, then perhaps PHP is the better choice -- not because of complexity, but because of the lack of proper rigidity enforced in getting started. Though I will say that I read 'getting started' as the cost of getting started on a new project, not 'your very first' project. In that regard, sure, PHP is easier. It gets that way by encouraging programming idioms that most other languages actively discourage. I understand the argument for would-be developers to get started with PHP. That's not too far off from how I got my introduction into web programming, but I have a hard time believing that developing developers choose PHP over Python or Ruby because it's easier to install.