What is PHP?
Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) is an
open source server-side programming language broadly used for web scripts and to
process the requests sent via the Common Gateway Interface (
CGI)
from
HTML etc. PHP can be written as stand-alone
scripts that reside on the server and may produce HTML for the web browser.
Alternatively, PHP is embedded within HTML, so that author can move between HTML
and PHP instead of using large amounts of code. Link all the server-side
scripting language, PHP is executed on the server, the viewer cannot see the
code. PHP can perform the same tasks as a CGI program can do and is compatible
with many popular databases management systems including MySQL and Oracle. Both
core PHP scripts and PHP embedded HTML files are saved with a .php file
extension.
PHP is the cross platform scripting languages and is supported by most of the
popular operating systems and it can also run on most of the web servers
including IIS and Apache but Apache, MySQL and PHP (AMP) architecture has become
the industry standard for deploying inexpensive, reliable, scalable and secure
web applications.
The PHP was designed exclusively for web development which gives it an edge as a
web development tool. Intranet design Magazine explains PHP as follow:
"PHP was built with the needs of Web developers in mind... Unlike other
cumbersome, overhead-laden approaches, PHP is lightweight and focused on the
Web - where it can solve complex
problem scenarios quicker and more easily than comparable technologies."
Advantages of PHP:
- PHP is supported by almost all the platforms
PHP is supported by nearly all the platform including Microsoft Windows, Linux,
UNIX, Mac and even mainframes.
- PHP is Faster
PHP is faster than other similar technologies. A recent survey at ZDNet's eweek
online publication found that PHP is 3.5 times faster than
JSP.
- PHP support both object oriented and sequential programming
Web application requires some features to be implemented with Object Oriented
techniques and other by sequential programming.