Understanding PHP
PHP is a programming language server-side designed for web development, PHP can also be used as a general programming language. PHP was developed in 1995 by Rasmus Lerdorf, and is now managed by The PHP Group. The official site is in http://www.php.net.
PHP programming language called PHP server side because it is processed on the server computer. This is different than the client-side programming languages such as JavaScript that is processed in a web browser (client).
At first PHP stands for Personal Home Page. PHP was first created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995. At that time PHP was named FI (Form Interpreted), his form a set of scripts that are used to process the form data from the web. As the name implies, PHP is used to create a personal website. Within a few years of development, PHP web programming language transformed into a powerful and are not only used to create a simple web page, but also a popular website used by millions of people like wikipedia, wordpress, joomla, etc.
Famous examples of PHP applications is the forum (phpBB) and MediaWiki (the software behind Wikipedia). PHP can also be seen as an alternative to the ASP.NET/C#/VB.NET Microsoft, Macromedia ColdFusion, JSP / Java Sun Microsystems, and CGI / Perl. Examples of other, more complex applications such as CMS is built using PHP is Mambo, Joomla !, Postnuke, Xaraya, and others.
