JavaScript, PHP and Perl

Since the HTML/CSS combination is analogous to the data found in a Word document, it is good only for displaying information.

If you want your web pages to do different things depending on the situation, you will need a programming language. For example, some websites want to provide a membership facility where people can log into the site, and access certain information. Other sites provide a feedback form so that visitors can contact them. All these things require facilities that a simple document format cannot do.

JavaScript, PHP and Perl are three of the most commonly-used programming languages on the Internet. They are used by websites to carry out more complicated operations.

Programs written in JavaScript run in the web browser itself, so if your website has a JavaScript program, the program will be automatically fetched by your visitor's browser and executed on his/her computer. PHP and Perl programs, on the other hand, run on the computer where your website is located, that is, on your web host's computer. After the PHP or Perl program does what it needs to do, it sends the result to the visitor's web browser, which merely displays the results.

Apart from the above difference, from the point of view of a non-programmer, there's not much point asking what the difference is between the languages, say, between PHP and Perl. It would be like asking what the difference is between English and German, or some other human language. They're just different languages that you can use to write web-based programs. Each computer language has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Learning a programming language is vastly different from creating a website whether with a web editor or directly in HTML. Although I have tutorials for things like learning to write programs in PHP (and the other languages), many people will find programming a difficult undertaking, unless they already have a programming background or an inclination towards programming.