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So if anyone can suggest a programming language to replace PHP I would love to know.

My personal favorite is python. It's easy to work with, logical, and really fits the way I think.

Some resources:
  * Instant python - gives a quick rundown on basic python
  * Ideomatic python - this is more about how one should use the language

Packages:
  * Bottle micro web framework - small and doesn't have the niceties of the larger python frameworks, but it's great if you just want to get your feet wet, and do something right now
  * VirtualEnv - Creates virtual python environments where you are free to experiment with different packages (and python versions) without affecting anything else.
  * PIP - package manager. Works incredibly well with virtualenv, and have some neat features (like making a list of all packages and versions installed in active VirtualEnv)

Ruby or Python are probably the best places to start; they're not going to be suitable for every type of programming you do, but they might teach you some good habits before you learn other languages with horrific syntax and dangerous pointers, and you can get going very quickly.

For Ruby, there's Chris Pine's Learn to Program or Why the Lucky Stiff's Poignant Guide to Ruby which is whimsical, but does pretty much the same thing, or just go to Try Ruby and type help.

For Python there's Instant Hacking, or Useless Python and I'm sure many others. These two sites, like the Rails site, are written in PHP, but I wouldn't touch PHP with a barge-pole if you're learning just now, it's only useful for web apps and will teach you bad habits.

If you 'invest' in a book, make sure that it covers at least python 2.2 ... You don't want a 1.6x book which will leave you in the dark about new style classes, scoping rules etc. (ie. if you get the O'Reilly Learning Python book, make sure it is 2nd Ed.)

Having said that I'm going to totally contradict myself by pointing you in the direction of Instant Python. (Actually I'm warning you that this is out of date, it's just such a quick hand up that it's still worth a look at.) More generally a list of on-line python tutorials can be found here.

What is Python? Python is the really neat computer programming thingy, based heavily on Monty Python's Flying Circus, which was invented by those really funny guys, Monty Python. Lucky for them it was called Monty Python's Flying Circus, because it would have been really inconvenient and confusing if it were called John Howard's Flying Circus, or something like that.

i really hate when programmers try to be funny. this article is asinine. Programming isn't a joke and telling a novice how to program and introducing all that sperflous crap is only going to confuse them even more. If i'm looking to program that means i want to learn to program, don't piss in my cornflakes and call it milk.

for lightness and performance. At least as far as scripting languages go. I can't say I'm a fan of Java but if you insist:

There is Java/Lua integration in the form of JLua and LuaJava. Possibly other tools as well.

Not only is this a good book, it is also one of only few that cover Python 2.4. The author Magnus Lie Hetland has a free python tutorial ("minimal crash course) (Instant python) on his homepage. He was also involved (as author, editor etc.) in several other book projects:

• Practical Python (Author) [Beginning Python is based on this one]
• Python Cookbook (Coauthor)
• Python in a nutshell (Editor)
• Foundations of Python network programming (Editor)

So we can assume he has a clue what he is writing about.

His homepage uses PHP, btw.

Chriss

--
memomo.net - brush up your German, French, Spanish or Italian - online and free

Not only is this a good book, it is also one of only few that cover Python 2.4. The author Magnus Lie Hetland has a free python tutorial ("minimal crash course) (Instant python) on his homepage. He was also involved (as author, editor etc.) in several other book projects:

• Practical Python (Author) [Beginning Python is based on this one]
• Python Cookbook (Coauthor)
• Python in a nutshell (Editor)
• Foundations of Python network programming (Editor)

So we can assume he has a clue what he is writing about.

His homepage uses PHP, btw.

Chriss

--
memomo.net - brush up your German, French, Spanish or Italian - online and free

Not only is this a good book, it is also one of only few that cover Python 2.4. The author Magnus Lie Hetland has a free python tutorial ("minimal crash course) (Instant python) on his homepage. He was also involved (as author, editor etc.) in several other book projects:

• Practical Python (Author) [Beginning Python is based on this one]
• Python Cookbook (Coauthor)
• Python in a nutshell (Editor)
• Foundations of Python network programming (Editor)

So we can assume he has a clue what he is writing about.

His homepage uses PHP, btw.

Chriss

--
memomo.net - brush up your German, French, Spanish or Italian - online and free

python is ugly and unreadable.

You must be a very good computer scientist to reject a language because it has a style guide that's enforced - and to have a strong opinion about a language that you obviously don't know. Wow.

My recommendation to you is to spend 10 minutes reading this tutorial and playing with the language, then to spend couple of minutes browsing through the documentation.

Then when you have a quick scripting project you decide to undertake - build a solution in Perl, but take a couple of extra minutes to also try it in Python. You'll probably love it - once trying Python I never looked back to Perl.

I think she could learn programming with Python.

Instant Hacking : Learn how to program with Python

This is an excellent article which explains the basics of programming, with an analogy between a program and a recipe. It is very well written and progressive to teach the different concepts of programming (what is programming, variables, loops and so on).

And Python doesn't seem to be "too complicated" at all to learn programming... Its syntax is the simplest I know, and if you don't do "complex" things it is very easy to understand, even for a total beginner.

Is not about languages dude is about tutorials. Here is a link for a tutorial geared towards moms:
python for moms

Instant Hacking

KFG

I second the vote for Python.

Python has already found a place in some high-schools - and has been a wild success. It's popularity exploded far quicker than they imagined. I became a python convert after about 20 minutes of following a few excellent tutorials one rainy sunday afternoon. I found myself writing incredibly useful little scripts for almost an entire week. Try it and you'll see how easy it is to learn. It should be a piece of cake for intelligent kids.

Other people have mentioned Visual Basic. Well, okay - but Visual Basic doesn't concentrate on the guts of the programming. Students are more likely to splat buttons down on a form than produce anything useful in terms of knowledge of program flow, code and algorithms. I should know - that was exactly what I did when I was learning (at the age of about 14, I'm now 26) - I found I did so much more with QuickBasic for DOS than I ever did with VisualBasic 1.0 (in which I'd sit there designing huge GUIs that I excessively tweaked, promptly lost interest in and never wrote any code for them).

I second the vote for Python.

Python has already found a place in some high-schools - and has been a wild success. It's popularity exploded far quicker than they imagined. I became a python convert after about 20 minutes of following a few excellent tutorials one rainy sunday afternoon. I found myself writing incredibly useful little scripts for almost an entire week. Try it and you'll see how easy it is to learn. It should be a piece of cake for intelligent kids.

Other people have mentioned Visual Basic. Well, okay - but Visual Basic doesn't concentrate on the guts of the programming. Students are more likely to splat buttons down on a form than produce anything useful in terms of knowledge of program flow, code and algorithms. I should know - that was exactly what I did when I was learning (at the age of about 14, I'm now 26) - I found I did so much more with QuickBasic for DOS than I ever did with VisualBasic 1.0 (in which I'd sit there designing huge GUIs that I excessively tweaked, promptly lost interest in and never wrote any code for them).

Yeah, yeah, yeah... Here's some Python links for you:

The official site. Downloads & Tutorials
An article by ESR praising python
A couple small intros to Python
An interesting look at Python from a LISPers point of view
Zope, Python-based web application server platfrom
Pygame : A Python interface to the SDL game library

Or if you're really impatient try Instant Python and learn it in 10 minutes! ;)

When I initially looked at it I thought, wow this is the language I'm looking for, nice clean syntax, object oriented ... then the idea of significant whitespace, and the wacky way of adressing/splicing arrays, (and goodness knows what other kind of surprises) kind of turned me off.

I've never gotten into using it, but it looks like it would be similar to Perl in functionality, only much prettier ... probably an ideal teaching language (if it weren't for the significant whitespace and whacky array splicing). OK, I'll admit, the significant indentation is probably a way of enforcing both good layout, and modularity (you would not want to be down 8+ deep loops and try to see which indent belonged to whom.) But those arrays?!