Which programming language would be best to program new web app? I don't know any languages myself, however I want to learn. I did some very basic coding before and can mess with basic source code. I have never written any serious code myself though. I want to design a new web site/app. That will require a large amount of real-time communication between users. And yes I know I won't be able to pick it up right away, I simply want to be able to work with a programmer or a friend that knows how to code.
I'm going to assume you're asking about frameworks as well since comparing PHP to CGI Python or CGI Ruby wouldn't exactly be fair (even though <i>some</i> people love to compare Rails/Django to pure PHP). This isn't a straightforward question, so I'm not going to give you a straightforward answer, but here goes.<p>Based on my experience of working with Rails, Django, Pylons, Zend, etc. I'm going to have to say, "It depends LOL!1!". If you're on completely level playing field with Ruby, Python and PHP I would say jumping into Rails would be a good choice since there's so much quality training material out there (and it's a really good framework if you can ignore the fan-boys).<p>Since you mentioned some real time stuff you might want to look into something like Tornado/Python (tornadoweb.org) though I honestly can't say if any other framework would prevent you from <i>real-time</i> since I don't know anything about your server/load.<p>If you don't know what MVC is, or think Models are skinny european women then I'd almost be tempted to say play with some PHP without a framework for a little while. This will let you get more familiar with processing a web form for example, or uploading an image without a framework telling you how they think it should be done. Get your hands dirty in other words.<p>I dunno, that's just my advice. Hopefully I didn't dumb it down for you but I had to assume you've never built a web app.
I would suggest using Python + Tornado (<a href="http://www.tornadoweb.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.tornadoweb.org</a>) for an easy-to-learn and lightweight web framework however it is very sparse in terms of documentation and there are not many guides out there covering Tornado yet. If you are up for the challenge then I say go for it; if not then I would suggest learning Ruby + Rails in order to get exposure to basic principles on web application design.<p>If you decide to go the ruby on rails route then I HIGHLY suggest getting Agile Web Development with Rails (<a href="http://pragprog.com/titles/rails4/agile-web-development-with-rails" rel="nofollow">http://pragprog.com/titles/rails4/agile-web-development-with...</a>) as this proved invaluable to me when I first started out. Best of luck!
find out what that programmer knows and learn that one :)<p>Most of them work well enough, so having a mentor if you get stuck is worth more than anything else.