PHP

Zend Studio 7
wikipedia
PHP, which is a recursive acronym standing for PHP: Hypertext Processor” is a web-scripting language that can be embedded in HTML pages to allow for the serving of dynamic content. Based o­n an amalgam of Perl, Java and C, many programmers find it relatively easy to use in developing web based applications.

One of PHP’s key strengths is its strong support of open source and free software. It interfaces extremely well with the Apache web server. In addition, although it can work with just about any database server, many users combine it with MySQL for a low-cost environment in which to develop web applications. In fact, it usually makes up the P in the LAMP architecture for web applications—Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. Another of its strengths is its maturity. Originally written in 1994, it has been through multiple updates and is now well into its 5.0 version. Its suitability as a backbone for major websites is demonstrated by the role it plays in generating the user interface of Facebook.

Coding in PHP is somewhat similar to a less complicated version of Perl. The code is typically embedded within delimiters in an HTML page for an interpreter to then execute although compilers are also available to create native code which can run more efficiently. Although it has supported object oriented programming for a number of years, the most recent version of PHP, version 5, has a new system which has greater similarity to C++.

Perl’s advantage over Microsoft’s Active Server Pages (ASP) technology is its openness. It runs o­n just about every platform and can work with countless external modules. Another competitor is Adobe’s Cold Fusion which offers a rich integrated development environment, but requires installation of an additional piece of proprietary software o­n the server side.