Javascript or Python? beginner getting up to speed [closed]

Question

Which language will allow a beginner to get up to speed quicker?

Basically which language of the two is easier to learn

Answer 1

Python is more regular, and has not needed to keep supporting every old, redundant feature forever, as Javascript has been forced to do (in order to keep supporting existing sites): these are issues that can make Python easier to learn.

However, Javascript's not too bad, especially if you can choose a reasonably rigid, modular, clean framework such as dojo (if you have to learn about every popular JS framework, or even most of them, it will, however, be a nightmare -- as it will if you have to learn the subtle bugs and incompatibilities of various browsers' implementations of JS and the DOM, rather than getting them covered up by such frameworks as dojo, jquery, or closure).

For learning Javascript, I recommend supplementing whatever tutorial you choose with Crockford's Javascript: the good parts -- it's a very thin book (which sounds like a joke, but it's true!-), fast and easy to read, and stops you from wasting your time on language features that are misconceived, too badly designed to use, or counterproductive. Crockford is a real JS guru and is well worth reading and paying attention to.