different web scripting languages

[ged25]

Different websites use different languages for their sites. I've heard that youtube is done in python, twitter in ruby on rails (scala?), wikipedia in php etc. So what goes into deciding which language to choose for your website ? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using different languages ?

[Nerd King]

Developers usually pick the one they're most familiar with. I'm proficient in a variety of languages so at that point it comes to which one will do the job with minimum effort/security problems/maintenance. That rules out ASP and coldfusion (both a complete nightmare) solutions. Finally, another consideration for developers is that sometimes they're integrating with some existing systems and different languages and servers will work together better than others.

[squilookle]

I still use ASP at work as that is the only thing my server supports.

Outside of work, I use php because I know it.

php and asp are currently the only two I am proficient at, but I may try to learn another one one day, of for no other reason that it would be another string in my bow.