PHP is fine but it has problems: http://eev.ee/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/ http://eev.ee/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/ I'd say

PHP is fine but it has problems: http://eev.ee/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/ http://eev.ee/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/ I'd say the same thing about C++. And I think newbies should be warned about both of these languages. That said I agree that the language doesn't really matter. I don't think frameworks or libraries should matter for novices either. My only advice is to do the problems at: http://projecteuler.net/ http://projecteuler.net/