Programming, web/software development

[Cobster]

I was out last night at a club downtown with a group of friends, my neighbour and his youngest brother (who turned 19, hence the clubbing night), while talking to him he asked me if I knew what would be a good start to learning computer programming.
I suggested the obvious Java and maybe PHP although I wasn't too sure of it. So I thought I'd ask any of you familiar with the stuff.
Essentially, he wants to be capable of doing computer programming for software or websites, etc. He's a pretty cool kid, so I thought I'd dig around ask here for starters.

 

[onthebottom]

I would think a 4yr degree in Computer Science would be the way to go... is that the kind of track he's looking for?

The guy I work for, his son did this program: http://www.etc.cmu.edu/site/ and he had amazing internships and job offers during and after (now with EA or Disney, can't remember) - VERY cool field if you're into software.

OTB