I am new to this. I know nothing about it, I have been recommended by a mate to learn php and he pointed me here. I don't even know what it stands for... Anyone point me in the right direction?

I have DW8 & FW8.

Thanks in advance,

Jamie Gordon UK

PHP is a server-side language that does all its business on the server, before anything is sent to the browser. Its used for things like forums, guestbooks etc a lot because it can be used with a mySQL database. It is a very powerful language, and I think it opens up a new world if you have only been using HTML so far.
Because PHP is a server-side language, you need a server for it to work. You can just write a .php page, save it in 'My Documents' and then open it with your browser like you do with HTML - you need either to upload it to your host or run a server on your own PC.
Some links:
Official php website
Official php website - introduction tutorial
Official mysql website
Webmonkey.com introductory php tutorial

Also, of course, if you have any questions then there's this forum


And PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor

I agree. There is a wealth of PHP tutorials out there on the web. Make use of them. You will need a server to make it all go, Linux is fine, and I think you can even run it on Windows XP. There is a nice package from apache friends, that includes the web server (apache), database (mySQL), and php, as well as an ftp thing I think. Very easy install.

Link is here

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/index.html