If you're mostly concerned with website programming you are going to need to learn Perl and PHP mostly. Or ASP for a Windows environment. But you would probably be best served learning Linux very good. And learn PHP and how it integrates with the backend MySQL database to make really killer apps. If you're referring to stand alone games, things get very different as jliot mentioned above. For web games Perl and PHP will do well.
no, I mostly meant more like webgames, browser based. I like online programs that you do not have to download. DOnt forget that site functionality and dynamic content is also what i was looking at.
you can't beat php and mysql. they are free. the are fast. there is tons of usable code out there. tutorials and support forums are abundant. and most importantly you can make pretty scalable applications that people can use. php would be perfect for any web based game.
*raised eyebrows* That's very interesting. How would I begin? A good book you would recomend? Are there any online tutorials that are worth looking at? I know people use PHP alot so I would start with that....
There are tons of books. The ones by Wrox are really good. http://www.wrox.com/ There is a ton of support online too. You can ask questions at almost any forum (even here) and someone will be able to help. Most of the truly high quality scripts these days are written in PHP. The language will be around to stay for quite some time.
Thank you much!
I'd recommend perl (I may be a little biased though) which is a great language and offers a lot of power for serious web applications and there are a million pre-made modules available for free on cpan.org I have a very basic perl tutorial on my site to get you started.. http://www.megacgi.com/perl-tutorial.html You should also learn some SQL so you can use MySQL with your apps. Have fun! :D
If your a complete newbie to programming, I would start off with two books to learn the basics of PHP. The first is that there is a PHP/Mysqyl Dummies book. I browsed through it at the bookstore last week and it seemed very easy to read and got the basics down in an intelligent manner. "Sam's Php in 24 hours", and Sam's Php/mysqyl/apache, are also good once you have read the dummies book. PHP.net as well is loaded with tutorials, and any search for "php tutorials" will get you where you need to be. Php is a very good language for webdevelopment. I am not sure about game development, most games I see use java in some form or another.