what is the best language for WEB development?

PHP & Java coz its more secure !!!

it depends on whether u r programming for the server side or the client. Every technology has pros and a good webmaster exploits the pros of all of them to patch the cons. Java should always be preferred compared to .NET as java is platform independent. moreover, a large number of servers are apache servers which are unix based and if u know java well u should know that its roots are also in unix. php and perl are used to generate dynamic web pages. now perl is a wonderful language while php is easy to learn as well as to work with. evrything that can be done in php can be done in perl but all that can be done in perl cant be done in php. the most secure sites like ebay.com and paypal.com are perl based rather than php. however, u r to suit ur needs. java is very good at muti-tasking at the enterprise level due the J2EE. it has got multi-threaded applications and is usually wonderfully safe but it has its limitations too. the recent introduction of the java.nio package has added the buffering functionality and the option of gathering read/write operations which prove to be very helpful on the server side. they also facilitate non-blocking I/O for servers.

If you just want to create a static website, then what you need is just to use HTML code. But if you want your website to be a dynamic website, then you can choose to use either server-side scripting or client-side scripting. Client-side scripting enables interaction within a webpage. The code required to process user-input is downloaded and compiled by the browser or plug-in. An example of a client-side interaction is a rollover (typically triggered when choosing a navigation option). Client-side scripting languages include JavaScript. With server-side scripting, completing an activity involves sending information to another computer (server) across the internet. The server then runs a program that process the information and returns the results, typically a webpage. Search engines use server-side processing. When a keyword is sent, a program on a server matches the word or phrase entered against an index of website content. (To complete the same search as a client-side process would require the browser to download the entire search engine program and index.) Server-side scripting languages include ASP and PHP.

I prefer PHP to any other language for web development. I may also go for JSP. Since PHP is free I think there are lots of projects available for PHP than any other web development languages. it is much easier to get freelance projects on PHP. Not only that it got a vast number of communities to help.

I think PHP is the best, because first of all, its an open source, you simply need an apache server and there are many sites providing it for free like www.110mb.com , plus the best feature is that you can mix Javascript in your code whereever you want :)

I think Java/J2EE framework is the best web development framework. The following are the reasons why :- its open source, platform independant and there are huge reference materials available in the market. Its also well tested and documented framework.