Web developers frequently utilise PHP, an open-source server-side scripting language, for their work. Additionally, you can create a wide range of projects with it, including Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), as it is a general-purpose language.
I’ll guide you through the world of PHP in this post so you can understand its fundamental functions. You’ll be able to write your first Hello World PHP programme before the end.
The Genesis of PHP
Rasmus Lerdorf, a Danish-Canadian programmer, created the first incarnation of PHP in 1994 as a simple set of Common Gateway Interface (CGI) binaries written in C. Originally, it was designed to track visits to his online resume. Over time, PHP evolved into a full-fledged server-side scripting language capable of creating dynamic web pages and applications. Since its inception, PHP has undergone significant updates and revisions, with the latest stable version being PHP 8, released in November 2020.
What Is Meant by PHP?
PHP was originally an acronym for personal homepage. However, it now stands for Hypertext Preprocessor, a recursive acronym. (It is recursive in that the meaning does not follow the abbreviation because the initial word is an abbreviation in and of itself.)
26 years have passed since the release of PHP’s first version. Although version 8 was published in November 2020, version 7 is still the most often used version.
The Zend engine powers the most widely used version of PHP. There are further implementations as well, such as Facebook’s Hip Hop, HPVM (Hip Hop Virtual Machine), and Parrot.
The majority of web servers are built with PHP. It can be executed via the command line in addition to being browser-based. It is therefore possible to display your code output in the terminal if you prefer not to display it in the browser.
Benefits of PHP
For more than 15 years, PHP has been the preferred language for web servers due to a number of advantages. Here are a few advantages of PHP:
Cross-Platform: PHP works on all platforms. As it runs on all platforms—Mac, Windows, and Linux—you don’t need to have a specific OS to utilise it.
Public Domain: It is free to use PHP. Anyone wishing to expand upon the original code can do so. This is among the factors contributing to the popularity of Laravel, one of its frameworks.
Simple to learn: Even for complete novices, PHP is not difficult to learn. If you already know how to programme, you can take it up relatively quickly.
PHP is compatible with all databases: PHP is readily connected to both relational and non-relational databases. In order to quickly connect to MySQL, Postgress, MongoDB, or any other database, this is possible.
Friendly Community: The online PHP community is incredibly friendly. The official literature offers instructions on how to use the functions, so if you get stuck, you can quickly solve the issue.
The Future of PHP
As technology continues to evolve, PHP is also adapting to meet the demands of modern web development. With the introduction of PHP 8, developers can take advantage of enhanced features such as improved performance, union types, just-in-time compilation, and a host of other optimizations. These advancements solidify PHP’s position as a contemporary and adaptable scripting language, poised to continue empowering the web for years to come.
In summary
PHP is still a popular and useful language for web development. Even with the ridicule and disagreement about the language’s continued value, PHP developers continue to make decent careers working with it. Therefore, it appears that PHP is here to stay.