PHP is an important web development language that was created by developers, for developers. The acronym originally stood for Personal Home Page Tools, but since then the web development language has undergone many changes and grown in scope. A community vote was held to identify its current full name, which is PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. PHP has undergone many rewrites, and the current vision is the fifth one, sometimes referred to as PHP5.

 

In essence, PHP is a scripting language for the server side, and as such it can serve as a standalone binary code or it can be placed within HTML.

Much of PHP’s popularity is probably due to the fact that it is completely free. There are no upfront costs, one-time fees, or ongoing maintenance charges. Budget-conscious developers are able to create and run fantastic applications with MySQL, PHP, and Apache that are comparable to those using SQLServer, ASP, and IIS, but for a fraction of the price.

Developers also appreciate PHP because it is much easier to learn than other languages, such as C-based CGI, ASP.NET, and Java Server Pages. Each of those languages require that developers have in-depth knowledge before they can make even minor changes. However, PHP is easy to grasp and its syntax is remarkably easy to break into smaller parts. Unlike many programming languages (and particularly Perl) it is a “human-friendly” web development language.

PHP has high cross-platform compatibility, meaning that it can run on any Windows or Unix-based platform, including Mac OS X. It is fully compatible with the Microsoft Internet Information Server and the Apache HTTP Server for UNIX and Windows, meaning that it can run on most of the world’s computers.

PHP’s high stability means (1) that the software doesn’t undergo major revisions with each new release, and (2) there’s no need to re-boot the server frequently. The Apache Server is known for its high stability, good uptime, and resistance to crashing. PHP is equipped with all this reliability, yet packaged in an incredibly lightweight manner.

In virtually all cases, PHP outperforms CGI scripts in terms of speed, even though it is slowed down a little bit because it is interpreted, not compiled.

Two-tier developers are adopting the use of PHP at an increasing rate. It now has a global user community that continues to develop and support the web development language. It continues to attract new developers, primarily with its free, global technical support from the round-the-clock forums that are packed with problem-solving advice and assistance in debugging code.