I'd like to see the kind of responses we'll get here, so I'm asking you to define what you think PHP is. Stuff like what it's used for, where it runs from, etc.

So, What is PHP? Post your answer below.

A programming language that has become insanely popular in recent years. Sufficient libraries and examples abound that amateurs can easily do simple things clumsily and difficult things badly.

A reasonable answer can be found at wikipedia but the main definition is discovered after you start working with it. Some say that PHP is a pour language... I don't agree, if you know to handle it well. As an offtopic, when I started to learn it was very hard to get some resources and it was a real competition to learn something, now everything it's like an open book. I kinda' regret that time.

Sufficient libraries and examples abound that amateurs can easily do simple things clumsily and difficult things badly.

Unfortunately true and unfortunately some are still "making websites" before knowing what a class is.

Some say that PHP is a pour language...

I don't think it is a poor language. Just a poor function naming convention (or lack of one).

It has the look or hallmark of a language designed by and written by a committee who never actually communicated with each other.
Some function names have an underscrore as a word seperator require_once for example, others such as phpinfo do not. Then there is the txtspk names hex2bin for instance but also there are such conversion functions as strtoupper or strtolower

And it's not even consistent in groups of similar functions, ie string handling;

strip_tags vs stripslashes

It makes it look as if it was created by amateurs for amateurs.

Great answers, guys! I agree with the fact that PHP has poor naming conventions.

PHP is a server-side language, which means nothing can be done dynamically without using other technologies, such as AJAX. Recently I was asked to create an image slideshow using only PHP, but I told the guy the only way to do it with strictly PHP was to use sleep() or usleep() (which each delay the page loading). What people need to understand is that PHP isn't an event oriented language like JS. It can't handle or 'do something' as it happens.

That's my rant

well for me, php is language which dragged me away from asp. A great online community like this forum and y'all guys !

PHP has poor naming conventions.

agree with that.

amateurs can easily do simple things clumsily and difficult things badly.

now that's i think absolutely true. I myself wrote some classes for example mail, bbcode parsers, pagination very badly. And after some time i realized it was like waste of time.

and programmer don't really have to worry about including libraries. it's done automatically unlike jsp where need to handle them explicitly.

PHP is application which is having big market in open source technology.One can easily develop his Application in PHP rather than in .net or any other language.Its free and easy to use.Most User friendly after Asp.NET.

Originally Posted by epixeltechno

PHP is application which is having big market in open source technology.One can easily develop his Application in PHP rather than in .net or any other language.Its free and easy to use.Most User friendly after Asp.NET.

Well! I'm sure that convoluted, and somewhat arcane explanation will have people flocking to the developers you are promoting in your signature.

Or on the other hand. ....




...

Maybe not!

Websites CANNOT be created with PHP, webpages and sites are built using Hyper Textual Mark Up Language (HTML).

PHP is used for WRITING HTML to the user agent.

php makes my website function properly without it... We would die.

Hai,
PHP is an open-source, HTML-embedded scripting language that can be used to develop web applications.

Originally Posted by EmmyJackson

PHP is an open-source, HTML-embedded scripting language that can be used to develop web applications.

PHP is not embedded into HTML. HTML can be the output of a PHP script. There is no connection between HTML and PHP other than that PHP is generally used to generate HTML code.

Originally Posted by NullPointer

PHP is not embedded into HTML. HTML can be the output of a PHP script. There is no connection between HTML and PHP other than that PHP is generally used to generate HTML code.

Apart from that you were spot on though

The best FREE programming language for me. Better than Java for me. Java is on your computer, PHP on the server. Is very important for me

Originally Posted by Creep77

The best FREE programming language for me. Better than Java for me. Java is on your computer, PHP on the server. Is very important for me

I guess you actually mean javeSCRIPT not Java.

Because Java has a clientside part in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and a serverside component in Java applets.

I always think of PHP as an upgrade to Perl lol

Mainly because Perl annoys the hell outta me. ( not sure why )

But my description of PHP is:

PHP is a server side scripting language that can be used to generate 'on the fly' HTML helping to create a dynamic website.

Then again,
I use PHP both as a dynamic html scripting lang and as a server side scripting language to replace poorly written perl scripts.

I find myself often replacing what would be advanced JS with an AJAX call so PHP can do it for me.

@chrishirst Of course Sorry

Hello..

PHP is a programming language used almost exclusively for Dynamic Websites.It is an open-source server-side scripting and programming language.