Silverlight or PHP

[sTyleSHA]

Dear Viewers,

I need your suggestion in choosing my job profile further. Currently i work as web designer with 2+ years of experience. I am in the process of learning xhtml, css and keen to explore the technical part of designing.

I feel i could learn php also, as i have worked with php team in solving some design issues while developing web applications.

1 ) Now in this point which one would be more better learning php in full swing or going for silverlight and Microsoft Expression engine..And please note that if I select silverlight i have to explore myself and self learn that may take time, provided i dont know abcd in dot net. Whereas in case of php there are seniors to help me out.

2 ) And does RIA (Rich Internet Application ) includes a combination of php too ? or excluding php ?

please suggest the best selection...

[buddylee17]

I believe Silverlight is Microsoft's attempt in gaining part of Adobe's Flash market. It's still in a very early stage and whether it will stand the test of time is unknown. What's for sure is that both Flash and PHP have stood that test.

[khipucoder]

Flash has stood the test but is quite outdated in many respects. Silverlight is aimed at the Flash market, not PHP.

PHP will be useful if you need to pass information to other applications through your web pages or intend to develop web based applications. In some ways it will actually complement Silverlight.

Personally I think Silverlight will be a success but it will take a long time to become established. It aims to be 99% cross platform by 2009. One thing to think about with this is PHP works across all platforms almost flawlessly whereas Flash has been a nightmare on platforms that aren't Windows. I've no idea whether Silverlight is programmed like Flash and Actionscript but if it is the learning curve is going to be a steep one.

If you want some solid web design skills I think you'll find the knowledge hole quite big if you miss out PHP.