PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source server-side scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. It was created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994; the PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group. PHP originally stood for Personal Home Page, but it now stands for the recursive acronym PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.
PHP code is usually processed by an interpreter application, which is either implemented as a native module on the web-server or as a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) executable. On the server, the interpreter application reads the file, compiles it into byte-code, and executes the script. The results are typically returned to the browser as a web page rendered by the PHP engine.
The PHP language evolved without a written formal specification or standard until 2014, leaving the canonical PHP interpreter as a de facto standard. Since 2014, work has gone on to create a formal PHP specification. As of August 2018, work was underway to create version 7.3 of the PHP language specification.
PHP has evolved to include a command-line interface (CLI) capability and can be used to implement standalone graphical applications. It has also evolved to support a wide variety of web frameworks and web template systems, such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and Symfony. PHP can now also be used for mobile application development, as well as developing server-side applications.
PHP can be deployed on most web servers, many operating systems and platforms, and can be used with many relational database management systems. It is available free of charge, and the PHP Group provides the complete source code for users to build, customize and extend for their own use.
PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a scripting language designed for web development. It is a server-side scripting language that can be embedded into HTML and is used to create dynamic web pages. Over the past two decades, the language has evolved from a simple scripting language to a powerful language for developing sophisticated web applications. Initially, PHP was used mainly for creating small, static websites. However, as the language evolved, it became increasingly complex and powerful, allowing developers to create powerful web applications. PHP has become an integral part of many popular content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. It is also used in many popular frameworks such as Laravel, Symfony, and CodeIgniter. PHP has also been used to develop popular e-commerce platforms such as Magento and WooCommerce. With the rise of object-oriented programming, PHP has also been used to develop object-oriented web applications. The language has also been used for developing RESTful APIs. With the introduction of PHP 7, developers have been able to take advantage of improved speed and performance of the language. PHP 8 is now available, which further improves performance and adds new features such as Just-in-Time (JIT) compilation. PHP is also popular among developers due to its wide range of open source libraries and frameworks such as Laravel and Symfony, which allow developers to quickly develop and deploy applications.
