PHP is the most widely used language for programming web applications. This article discusses some of the reasons why you should take the time and effort to learn it.

Why Learn PHP?

PHP is the most widely used web scripting language. PHP enables even relatively inexperienced programmers to develop dynamic web sites for virtually any web application. In a nutshell that’s why you should learn PHP. Don’t let anyone tell you that learning PHP is a piece of cake. Like any other programming language, mastering PHP is not a simple task. In spite of promises that abound, you won’t become a master in 48 hours. So let’s take a closer look at why you should make the commitment to learn PHP. But first a word of encouragement, you won’t have to master this extensive language to see the benefits.

Let’s look briefly at what you need to develop and test PHP programs. After all, you can’t learn to program without running and debugging (finding the errors in) real programs. The good news is that PHP is free. You can download it along with other useful applications for free. We recommend that you start with PHP4 unless you are an experienced programmer. Later on you can move up to PHP5. The rest of this article talks mostly about PHP4. A companion article will discuss PHP5.

PHP, almost as fun as bicycling.

PHP can run on old computers. For example, I downloaded PHP copied it to a USB pen drive, and then copied these files onto a Pentium computer that had been purchased new in August, 1999. I couldn’t run PHP under Windows 98 because it didn’t recognize my USB drive. But I ran PHP under Windows 2000 on this computer, which had an Internet browser but no live Internet connection. The entire PHP system required less than 60 Megabytes. Moral of the story: You can do PHP even on outdated computers.

So you can do PHP. Why do PHP? First of all, it is open source. Free. Why pay big bucks for Microsoft or other competitive products? PHP and its friends are the most popular kids on the block. And it’s popular with a wide range of users from strict beginners to hard-nosed professionals whose careers depend on performance.

PHP integrates well with HTML. You can do most of your web pages in HTML if that’s what you are familiar with. If you prefer the newer XML you should move up to PHP5.

PHP supports object-oriented programming. This article is not the place to explain object-oriented programming, the preferred methodology for developing sophisticated projects. PHP4 is a fine tool for learning the basics of object-oriented programming.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. PHP comes with well over 100 libraries of programming functions and more than a dozen database access functions. Because PHP is open source scads of programmers are constantly pushing the PHP envelop.

PHP is fast and flexible. Many claim that for technical reasons it runs faster than its competitors including the Microsoft offerings. PHP programs can be moved from the Windows environment to the Linux environment and still run. Word to the wise: If you are ever thinking of going Linux make sure to pay strict attention to capitalization. Linux treats File1 and file1 as two different files while Windows treats them as the same file. If you are totally strict in the use of lower-case and capital letters, it’s very easy to move your web pages from Windows to Linux servers.