PHP is an open-source language used for dynamic web content and server-side applications. Originally designed in 1994, it was rewritten in 1997 and renamed PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. It has robust object-oriented capabilities and is considered one of the most used languages for server-side scripting. While criticized for security flaws, development continues to address concerns raised by the open-source community.
PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, with that PHP standing for Personal HomePage (Tools). This type of acronym is known as a retronym. Originally, in 1994, the language was designed as a small set of binaries used to collect some basic data about site traffic. In 1997, the parser was rewritten by two Israelis and the name was changed to its current acronym, it having been determined that the hypertext preprocessor was a far more acceptable name in the business world.
It is an open source language, mainly used for dynamic web content and server side applications. PHP is often listed as the top contender with the following:
Microsoft C# — Visual Basic.NET — ASP family
Sun’s Java — JSP
ColdFusion by Macromedia
CGI — Pearl
PHP has many open source libraries included in the main build and many more are readily available. There are extensions to help it interface with a number of systems, including IRC, a number of compression formats and Windows APIs. There are other extensions to allow PHP to generate file formats on the fly, such as a popular extension that allows you to create Adobe Flash® movies.
Since version 3, PHP has integrated object-oriented features. Version 5 built heavily on this limited functionality, and the language now has robust object-oriented capabilities, including interfaces, exceptions, destructors, and abstracts.
PHP achieved massive popularity with version 4, released in 2000. Version 5 debuted in 2004, and is now considered one of the most used languages for server-side scripting.
No doubt much of its popularity is due to its relative ease of learning and notorious fluency. Arrays and variables in PHP are capable of holding any type of object, variables don’t need to be declared, and the syntax is remarkably simple.
Unlike many languages, such as C# or Perl, which primarily have a following of more generalist programmers, many PHP programmers are unaware of other languages. This occasionally causes it to be dismissed as a minor language, but its growing popularity and the many robust and efficient sites built using it as a framework seem to dispel this myth.
PHP has occasionally been criticized for what are seen by some as security flaws, compared to languages such as ASP. The lack of easily understandable error messages, a sometimes overly robust configuration file, and an obviously incomplete set of built-in functions are also pointed out as areas that could be greatly improved.
Development continues, however, and with each successive build, the language seems to increasingly address the concerns raised by its open-source community.
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