What Is PHP?
Self-referentially short for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, an open source, server-side, HTML embedded scripting language used to create dynamic Web pages.
In an HTML document, PHP script (similar syntax to that of Perl or C ) is enclosed within special PHP tags. Because PHP is embedded within tags, the author can jump between HTML and PHP (similar to ASP and Cold Fusion) instead of having to rely on heavy amounts of code to output HTML. And, because PHP is executed on the server, the client cannot view the PHP code.
PHP can perform any task that any CGI program can do, but its strength lies in its compatibility with many types of databases. Also, PHP can talk across networks using IMAP, SNMP, NNTP, POP3, or HTTP.
what it is used for?
PHP is a server-side scripting language designed primarily for web development but also used as a general-purpose programming language. Originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994, the PHP reference implementation is now produced by ThePHP Development Team.
why PHP is a scripting language?
Basically, there is nothing that makes a language a scripting language except that it is called such, especially by its creators. The major set of modern scripting languages is PHP, Perl, JavaScript, Python, Ruby and Lua. ... So Factor is ascripting language (or at least was when that was written), but, say, Java is not.
