1 WHAT IS PHP—AND WHYSHOULD I CARE?

What this chapter covers:

  • Understanding what PHP can do
  • Is PHP difficult?
  • Is PHP safe?
  • Using the download files

One of the first things most people want to know about PHP is what the initials stand for. Then they wish they had never asked. Officially, PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. It's an ugly name that gives the impression that it's strictly for nerds or propellerheads. Nothing could be further from the truth.

PHP is a scripting language that brings websites to life in the following ways:

  • Sending feedback from your website directly to your mailbox
  • Sending email with attachments
  • Uploading files to a web page
  • Watermarking images
  • Generating thumbnails from larger images
  • Displaying and updating ...

Get PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.