PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is an open-source HTML-embedded server-side scripting language used to develop dynamic and interactive web applications and as a general-purpose programming language.
Facts About PHP
- PHP was developed by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995 and is later being developed as an open-source. PHP group now manages the implementation of PHP.
- PHP has many syntaxes similar to C, Java, and Perl and has many unique features and specific functions.
- PHP page is a file with a .php extension can contain a combination of HTML Tags and PHP scripts.
- PHP is a recursive acronym for PHP(Hypertext Preprocessor): HyperText means text containing all sorts of web markups, and PreProcessor means all of the HyperText is processed first. Then, the result is sent as pure HTML to the web browser. A client cannot see the PHP source code because it is preprocessed and interpreted.
- PHP is Server-side scripting language: Server-side scripting means that the PHP code is processed on the web server rather than the client machine.
- PHP supports many databases (MySQL and PHP combination is widely used).
- PHP is an open-source scripting language.
- PHP is free to download and use.
What You Can Do with PHP
PHP is used to create web applications, and some of the most popular web applications like Facebook, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Twitter, and WordPress have all been developed in PHP. And you can also develop the next big thing using PHP.
PHP Why? Popular Features of PHP
- The best thing about using PHP is extremely easy for a newcomer, and also it has many advanced features for a professional programmer.
- Learning PHP is very easy, and it runs efficiently on the server side.
- PHP works on many operating systems such as Linux, Windows, Mac OS X.
- PHP is FREE to download from the official PHP resource: php.net
- PHP supports many databases like MySQL, MS SQL, Oracle, Sybase, PostgreSQL, and many others.
- PHP can dynamically generate HTML, PDF, Flash, Text, CSV, XML, etc.
- Coding in PHP is easy and fast, so it takes less time to build an application.
- Many good PHP frameworks like Zend, Codeigniter, and Laravel are available for PHP.
- Many web hosting options are available at a fair price for PHP.
- With PHP, code deployment is straightforward.
- Substantial PHP community support and many tutorials and sample programs are available online.
PHP vs. Other Technologies
Many developers working in other technologies (e.g., JSP, ASP, Perl, ColdFusion) are also interested in working in PHP. Usually, it's a matter of preference and the cost involved that urges developers to pick PHP one over the other. Maybe there are different opinions about it, but most PHP developers believe that PHP is easier to learn and has a superior syntax than other languages. Additionally, PHP is fast and safe, and on top of all, it's free.