Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) is an open-source server-side scripting programming language that numerous developers utilize to develop web applications. It’s also a general-purpose programming language that can be used to create a variety of applications, including Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs).
In this post, I’ll help you discover the world of PHP to help you understand the way it functions and its fundamental features.
What does PHP mean?
The abbreviation PHP was originally a reference to Personal Homepage. It is now an acronym that recurses that stands for Hypertext Preprocessor. (It’s Recursive by the fact that the primary word is abbreviation. Therefore, the full meaning of the word doesn’t necessarily follow that abbreviation.)
The initial version PHP was released in 1996. It’s now on version 8 that will be available in November 2020, however version 7 is the one that’s the most used version.
PHP is based using the Zend engine, that is by far the most well-known implementation. There are many different implementations including the parrot engine, HHVM (Hip Hop Virtual Machine) as well as Hip Hop, created by Facebook. PHP Code igniter, a framework written in PHP is driven by the MVC (Model View Controller) architectural pattern, with all logic being contained in the controller.
Note: PHP is not to be confused with Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) which is a software development language.
PHP is used mostly to build web servers. If you don’t want to display your output from the browser, you could display it using the terminal. .PHP is used mostly to build web servers. If you don’t want to display your output from the browser, you could display it using the terminal.
The advantages of PHP
PHP offers a number of advantages which have made it well-known, and it’s been the most popular language used to run web server applications for over 15 years. Here are a few PHP advantages:
- Cross-Platform: PHP is platform-independent. You don’t need an specific OS to utilize it as PHP runs on every platform such as Mac, Windows, or Linux.
- The Open Source version of PHP is an open-source program. The source code is accessible to anyone who wishes to develop on it. This is among the reasons behind why the framework, Laravel, is so well-known.
- It is easy to master PHP is easy to master for complete beginner. You can learn it easily in the event that you already have programming skills.
- PHP is able to sync with all Databases It is possible to be able to connect PHP to any Databases both relational and non-relational. This means that it will quickly connect in no time to MySQL, Postgress, MongoDB or any other database.
- The Supportive Community PHP is a highly helpful online community. The official documentation offers guides for using the features, and it is possible to quickly solve your issue even if you’re stuck.
Who uses PHP
Numerous established companies and tech giants utilize PHP to manage their servers, and also create some amazing things.
- Facebook: Facebook uses PHP to power its website. The company has contributed to the community by establishing an application known as Hip Hop for PHP.
- Wikipedia is among the largest sources of information about any topic, Wikipedia is built in PHP.
- Content Management Systems (CMSs): the most popular and well-known CMS, WordPress, is built in PHP. Other CMSs like Drupal, Joomla, and Magento are also built on PHP. Shopify is based on PHP too.
- Web Hosting Platforms There are a variety of Web Hosting Platforms like BlueHost, Site ground, and Whogohost manage their hosting servers with PHP.
Does PHP die?
Today, there’s a heated debate over whether PHP is in decline or not. This is due to the growth and popularity of different languages that are suited to server-side use, like JavaScript (Node JS), Python, Golang, and other languages.
This has resulted in many humorous memes focusing on PHP
But do you think PHP truly dying? It’s not true. Despite the smears of some critics about it and making claims about its declining popularity, PHP is still used for the server management for nearly 90% of all websites on the internet today. Therefore, if you visit 10 websites every day, it’s likely that 8 of them are using PHP.
When it comes to job opportunities, PHP ranks better than many other programming languages available on the job portal Indeed. Many PHP developers earn a living by creating WordPress theme and plug-ins each year.
The average PHP programmer in the US earns around $86,000 a year. | much more than the average programmer who uses other programming languages. The future of PHP is still very bright indeed!
How to create your First Hello World Program in PHP
Once you’ve gained knowledge about PHP and its benefits now is the time to write the first Hello World program in it!
The first step is to need to install PHP on your personal machine. This can be accomplished through installing the XAMP (Cross-Platform, Apache, MySQL as well as PHP) as well as a the WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL along with PHP) server.
XAMP is compatible with all operating systems , while WAMP is only compatible with Windows. The second step is to download the OpenBazaar client.
You can find the OpenBazaar Client here: Https://github.com/OpenBazaar/openbazaar-client/.After downloading the OpenBazaar client, extract the file from within it and copy over php-openssl.dll as well as vendor/lib/phpthumb.dll into your server’s root folder (where you’d find index.php).
Conclusion
PHP is still a popular and widely used language for web development. Despite the debate and mockery about whether or not it’s still a valuable language, PHP developers keep earning an income from their work using the language. Thus, PHP doesn’t seem to disappear anytime soon.
Now, let’s to code some PHP! Thank you for your time, and please keep on coding.
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