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If you really want to excel and learn, pick up Java. It is so completely different from PHP that you'll learn a tonne (and likely appreciate PHP more).

The upside is that there is always a market for Java developers (not that there isn't one for PHP but it's good to have options).

I'm sure that the script kiddies will bury this post and tell you to learn Erlang, Ruby, etc (which are all good in their own right) but that's this old cat's 2 cents.

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You don't mention why one should not choose Erlang, Ruby, etc, nor why one should in fact choose Java. That you also lump Erlang and Ruby together, two very different languages, with different advantages, and of completely different paradigms; further undermines the credibility of your suggestion.

Your reference to script kiddies? The icing on the cake my friend.

Whoa. I hit a nerve there.

He didn't ask what he shouldn't learn. He asked what he should learn.

I suggested that he learn Java because it is so completely different from PHP. That's all.

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