[TMK]

I agree almost with everything you said, except I forgot to mention in my comment that the order I listed the languages would be good way to learn them.

Though about PHP. I don't see it as useless language if you learn Python first. One thing I have noticed is that PHP hosting services are offered more than for Python, which makes it kinda easy in my perspective to use PHP for web development. PHP does offer everything you need for web development in the standard libraries, I have never had need for using any of the existing frameworks even though they make MVC easier.

You can always write desktop applications with PHP if your really want. Look at something like PHP-GTK.

[sixtofour]

"I forgot to mention in my comment that the order I listed the languages would be good way to learn them."

Ah. I kind of agree with you now. I personally might still shy away from PHP, but I have nothing against it (I didn't mean to imply that it's useless). It would depend on the conversation I'd have with the hypothetical student, but by that time (after learning Python), the student could probably decide for themselves.

EDIT: changed parenthesized comment from "after learning a more general language like Python" to "after learning Python"

[chirp]

Yeah, I agree that learning Python would be a good first step. Thanks for taking the time to reply.