Reviews and Ratings
Good for powering content
written over 16 years ago
PHP was my introduction to programming and I feel it is a good language for first-timers to learn. It needs understanding of HTML, which is an excellent starting point for any new programmer.
I agree with Rasmus's view that PHP is essentially a templating language as at it's most basic it generates HTML output. Unfortunately it's grown up as a spiderweb of libraries which has earned it a lot of criticism but these libraries are of good quality.
While it's loose typing and lack of order of it's functions may put off people used to .NET it's worth sticking with if you have time enough to learn your way around it.