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php main
* 1. what is php
a. php history
b. uses of php
c. php hello world
d. installing php
2. http basics
3. php basics
4. php expressions
5. php client side
6. php flow control
7. php manual


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What is PHP?

These tutorials are about PHP and its use for server-side Web programming.

This tutorial has four (4) sub-sections.

PHP

PHP, depending on who you talk to, either stands for Personal Home Page or for PHP Hypertext Preprocessor. Since the person who wrote the language calls it Personal Home Page, it is a fair bet as to which is the correct rendition of the acronym.

scripting language: a programming language used to write scripts or small interpreted programs

PHP is a server-side scripting language whose primary purpose is to generate HTML content. With the current direction of the Web, it is easily being adapted to writing out all forms of XML content as well.

It was originally developed as a set of server-side modules to perform some specific Web-server tasks on small, Unix-based Web servers. Thus the personal aspect. Since then PHP has grown beyond the work of one man writing some tools for his own use and into one of the most popular server-side scripting languages in the Web.

Three thing make PHP popular. The first is that it is easy: easy to implement, easy to learn, and easy to use. The second is that it is free. The third is that it runs on almost any Web server on almost any platform currently available.

What follows is a brief introduction to PHP. We will look at the history of PHP and what it can do. We will also look at a simple piece of sample code as part of a typical hello world assignment.

The last topic is a brief overview on installing PHP with Apache on a Windows box.

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These pages can be found at: [http://academ.hvcc.edu/~kantopet/]
Copyright 2003 -- Peter L. Kantor[]
Last Updated January 2003