I agree with andy_ppp on the combo html/javascript/css. There are plenty of places to experiment online with this stack, and it can be used for both back-end an

I agree with andy_ppp on the combo html/javascript/css. There are plenty of places to experiment online with this stack, and it can be used for both back-end and front-end. And with node-webkit or similar is can also be used for desktop applications. And javascript is flexible enough that you can use different programming paradigm, depending on your own preferences.