PHP: A Trendsetter


Since after the emergence of PHP is the field of Internet changed everything drastically. Unlike the other languages or scripts, PHP is an open source scripting language and the most popular programming language for the web development. PHP is a flexible, scalable and easy to program in and supported by international community of developers and users. PHP can support various most popular databases such as MySQL, mSQL, Oracle and Microsoft Access. PHP enables developers to build complex data-driven web applications, while enjoying short development cycles because of the simplicity and flexibility of the language.
One of the most powerful combinations in the open source arena today is the PHP/MySQL combination. Like PHP, MySQL has open-source roots: it is a fast and reliable database management system that is rapidly acquiring a worldwide user base. By using PHP and MySQL together, users can benefit from the cost savings that accompany community-driven software, and also leverage off the immense number of freely available PHP/MySQL applications to reduce development and deployment time.
The PHP History
According to its official web site at http://www.php.net/, PHP is “. . . a widely used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML . . . the main goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated web pages quickly.” Typically, PHP code is “embedded” inside a regular HTML document, and is recognized and executed by the web server when the document is requested through a browser. Because PHP is a full-featured programming language, you can code all manner of complex thingummies into your web pages using this technique; the server will execute your code and return the output to the browser in the format you specify. Because PHP code is executed on the server and not on the client, developers don’t have to worry about browser-specific quirks that could cause the code to break (as commonly happens with JavaScript); PHP code works independently of the user’s web browser.
The first version of PHP, PHP/FI, was developed by Rasmus Lerdorf as a means of monitoring page views for his online resumé and slowly started making a mark in mid 1995. This version of PHP had support for some basic functions, primarily the capability to handle form data and support for the mSQL database. PHP/FI 1.0 was followed by PHP/FI 2.0 and, in turn, quickly supplanted in 1997 by PHP 3.0. PHP 4.0, which was released in 2003, used a new engine to deliver better performance, greater reliability and scalability, support for web servers other than Apache. PHP 5.0, offers a completely revamped object model that uses object handles for more consistent behavior when passing objects around, as well as abstract classes, destructors, multiple interfaces, and class type hints. PHP 5.0 also includes better exception handling, a more consistent XML toolkit, improved MySQL support, and a better memory manager.
Features of PHP
·         Simplicity:
·         Portability
·         Speed
·         Open Source
·         Extensible
·         XML and Database support

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