

What is PHP?

What PHP is:
PHP is a scripting language that does not need to be compiled. Similar to C, Java, and Perl - but with a few of its own twists thrown in there. It is a very powerful language, that has made hundreds upon hundreds of people rich and wealthy. Facebook, for example, the largest social network website to ever exist, is made mostly of PHP (for the core functionality anyways). If you've ever wondered, "How does a site do that?", there's a good chance PHP is behind it. Like the director behind the camera, it only shows you what you want to see, and hides everything else.

What it stands for:
PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor

What the file extension is:
All PHP files are saved in... you guessed it! .php files. Optionally, you can save them in .php3 or .phtml (although those are pretty out dated)

What PHP allows you to do:
Everything. Shopping carts, profiles, file creation.. it can even make images!

Prerequisits for learning PHP:
Basic HTML - nothing too advanced. We'll keep the HTML down to a minimum, in order to focus on PHP more.
JavaScript (Not mandatory, but useful) - we probably won't use much, if any, JS in this class.

You task, if you choose to take this class:
Write down ALL your questions. If you have some free time, look around on or simply google the question. Alternatively, you can post the question here. 

Task Discussion

  • Anonym   Feb. 15, 2013, 11:40 p.m.

    I'd like to know, why do some people (even other programmers) not believe that PHP is scalable?

  • Eenvincible   Jan. 15, 2013, 1:57 p.m.

    Hi guys,

    I signed up for this awesome course and went ahead to create a tutorial on how to install PHP - i took another turn and installed the XAMPP bundle which makes my work easier.

    Thanks and please check the whole post here:

    Hope to see you guys around!

  • Richard   Dec. 18, 2012, 5 p.m.

    About PHP-see Wikipedia




  • Josemon Maliakal   July 18, 2012, 12:25 a.m.

    It will be a cool experience learning the php language

  • Ramon Marquez   May 30, 2012, 9:24 p.m.

    Question: I decided to start for PHP and then, continue with Java script. Would it be a good strategy? or, would it be recomended to study first Javascript? I am in the rigth momment to change the way

  • nostradamus21b   May 31, 2012, 9:15 a.m.
    In Reply To:   Ramon Marquez   May 30, 2012, 9:24 p.m.

    Un amigo mio, ingeniero en informática, me recomendó la siguiente metodología de estudio para convertirse REALMENTE en un buen programador:
    1) Estudiar "Teoría General de Sistemas" --> "Modelamiento de Datos" --> "Bases de Datos" --> Y finalmente programación.
    2) Ya en programación la metodología sería la siguiente...
    Lógica --> DfD (diagramas de flujo) --> Pseudo código -- > un lenguaje de programción (para empezar bien uno simple como Pascal).
    La personas que de manera autodidacta entramos a este mundo de la programación desconocemos esta metodología, lo cual nos impide alcanzar el pleno conocimiendo de "como funcionan las cosas".

    Ahora, en relación a tu pregunta, te recomiendo que el orden sea primero javascript y después PHP ¿Por qué? Porque a través de javascript podemos llegar a comprender mejor PHP. Recordemos que PHP es parte de lo que se denomina "Back-end programming" (la parte dinámica de las páginas) y HTML, CSS y javascript "Front-end programming".

    Saludos y mucha suerte.