about-php.html in Advanced Help 8

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<p><b>PHP</b> (<i>PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor</i>) is a computer <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripting_language" title="Scripting language">scripting language</a>, originally designed for producing <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_web_page" title="Dynamic web page">dynamic web pages</a>. It is mainly used in <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server-side_scripting" title="Server-side scripting">server-side scripting</a>, but can be used from a <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_line_interface" title="Command line interface">command line interface</a> or in <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standalone" title="Standalone">standalone</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_user_interface" title="Graphical user interface">graphical applications</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1" title="">[2]</a></sup></p>

<p>While PHP was originally created by <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasmus_Lerdorf" title="Rasmus Lerdorf">Rasmus Lerdorf</a> in 1994, the main implementation of PHP is now produced by The PHP Group and serves as the <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_facto_standard" title="De facto standard"><i>de facto</i> standard</a> for PHP as there is no <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_specification" title="Formal specification">formal specification</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-history_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-history-2" title="">[3]</a></sup> Released under the <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP_License" title="PHP License">PHP License</a>, the <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation" title="Free Software Foundation">Free Software Foundation</a> considers it to be <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software" title="Free software">free software</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3" title="">[4]</a></sup></p>

<p>PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_development" title="Web development">web development</a> and can be embedded into <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML" title="HTML">HTML</a>. It generally runs on a <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_server" title="Web server">web server</a>, taking PHP code as its input and creating <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_page" title="Web page">web pages</a> as output. It can be deployed on most web servers and on almost every <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system" title="Operating system">operating system</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_%28computing%29" class="mw-redirect" title="Platform (computing)">platform</a> free of charge.<sup id="cite_ref-foundations_4-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-foundations-4" title="">[5]</a></sup> PHP is installed on more than 20 million websites and 1 million <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_%28computing%29" title="Server (computing)">servers</a>, although the number of websites with PHP <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Installation_%28computer_programs%29" title="Installation (computer programs)">installed</a> has declined since August 2005.<sup id="cite_ref-usage_5-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-usage-5" title="">[6]</a></sup> It is also the most popular <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_HTTP_Server" title="Apache HTTP Server">Apache</a> module among computers using Apache as a web server.<sup id="cite_ref-usage_5-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-usage-5" title="">[6]</a></sup> The most recent major release of PHP was version 5.2.5 on <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_8" title="November 8">November 8</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007" title="2007">2007</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-php5changelog_6-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-php5changelog-6" title="">[7]</a></sup></p>