Which language is best?

[Jared Michaels]

Hi Everyone.

I'm new here and I have some specific linux questions, but first I have 
another that's more important to me.

I'm trying to build a document reader for a friend of mine. He uses the 
JAWS Reader for the blind, so I've been creating this reader with MS HTML 
Help for Windows, and generating the documents using PHP on Linux. It seems 
to be the easiest and most accessible thing that I've found that can handle 
such large documents.

The problem is that I can't make it interactive -- I want to be able to 
include things like a search engine (something other than the HTML Help 
search engine), saving bookmarks, search queries, and user preferences. 
I've been using VBscript, but when I try to use the FileSystemObject I get 
a security warning. MS says this can be fixed by using a digital 
certificate, but that's out of my price range. This is a not-for-profit 
project and I don't want to spend any money on it.

So, here's what I need help with. I need to find a programming language 
that is easy for someone like me to understand -- someone who has years of 
scripting and object-oriented language experience (VBA, Javascript, 
VBScript, PHP, etc.), and can, with the right documentation and 
environment, learn quickly; a language that is cross-platform -- compatible 
with at least Windows, Linux, and Mac OS 9 or 10; something that's free and 
can be built in a Linux environment (I have Suse Linux 7.3, but be gentle, 
I'm a little green); and something that can be easily deployed without a 
lot of user intervention.

I've been struggling with this problem for weeks, so I'd appreciate any 
suggestions.

Thanks much.
Jared