Which language should I learn?

Sup /prog/, I want to learn a language. I'm thinking something fairly simple to start off with like PHP but I hear alot of people saying it's shit. I'll be learning on my own from a reference book plus ebooks I can find.

So what would be a good language for a beginner to master before progressing to something more complex.

Thanks!

>>30

character?? why would anybody use a single character as a variable!?

Because you can't do the most basic of string functions without it. Like making a string upper/lowercase, sorting it, comparing it, just to name a few things.

IHBT