[For_Iconoclasm]

There tends to be a lot confusion, with newcomers to any field, over which tools should be used. The truth is that 95% (made-up statistic... I mean a large majority) of the effectiveness of a tool comes from the user's proficiency, not the tool's intrinsic value. If you've heard of the language being used before being experienced and versed in the subject matter, it's probably good enough for your uses.

I touched PHP in some college classes based on web programming, and one of the projects that I made actually got me my current job as a Python programmer at a very small company. The key here is that I was able to demonstrate what I was able to do with given tools; I wasn't given a quiz on the finer details of Python iterators or Tornado (the web server we use). Even if I had told them that I was interested in learning Python, but I wasn't great at it yet, I think they may still have hired me. As it was, I already knew Python.

I really like Python. The syntax is wonderful; it's just a pleasure to work in. I once saw somebody post "If Python were any easier, it'd write itself." It's a general-purpose programming language, while PHP is mostly a domain-specific language (the domain being the web). Does that mean it's more powerful? Maybe. You probably won't get to a place in web programming where a single language will hold you back for a long time. Look at Facebook; it's written in PHP, but it's moderately complicated. Meanwhile, Hipmunk uses Python (with Tornado) on their backend. I can't think of any examples that use Ruby/On Rails because I don't really follow the language, but I know it's also wildly popular.

Your evaluation of PHP hit the nail on the head. It's really popular in the job market, along with ASP.NET. I think Ruby on Rails and Python (Django) are becoming more popular. If the job market aspect is really important to you, maybe you can try looking up local jobs to see what your area offers.

[thekevan]

Thanks I appreciate your help. In my area, it seemed like more than half the jobs that mentioned one of the three were for PHP, followed by Python taking a little more than half of the remainder and Ruby taking the rest. (So loosely, out of 20 it would be about: 12:5:3). However that was on the common job sites that do not focus on tech and I suspect there may be more need for Python and Ruby is the hidden market than I am seeing.

Just for reference here are some example of who uses Ruby and RoR:

http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/documentation/success-stories/

http://rubyonrails.org/applications