Introduction to PHP

PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor. Originally created in 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf, it's a powerful scripting language primarily used for web development.

PHP scripts execute on the server, generating HTML which is then sent to the client's browser. This allows for dynamic and interactive web page content creation.

PHP can be embedded directly within HTML code. It separates logic from content, making it simpler to manage large websites and web applications.

PHP code is processed by a PHP interpreter, which is installed on a web server. The Zend Engine, introduced in PHP 4, plays a central role in this process.

PHP has evolved from a series of Perl scripts to a mature language with object-oriented features. PHP 7 offers significant performance improvements over its predecessors.

PHP excels in database integration, supporting various databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite. It uses PDO (PHP Data Objects) for database abstraction.

Frameworks like Laravel, Symfony, and CodeIgniter speed up the development process by providing a structured environment with tools and libraries for common tasks.