What does it mean PHP?

Question

It`s something about computers. Does anyone know what is it exactly?

Answer 1

From the preface of the PHP manual:

PHP is an HTML-embedded scripting language. Much of its syntax is borrowed from C, Java and Perl with a couple of unique PHP-specific features thrown in. The goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly.

PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. Its a recursive acronym. :)

Essentially PHP is a scripting ("programming") language that allows you to write HTML pages that respond to user input.

Answer 2

PHP  is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML.

Basically it's a server side language that will do the work and then send the finished product (HTML/CSS/Javascript) to the browser.

Take care,

Chad

Answer 3

Following is a copy and paste from Webopedia.  

Self-referentially short for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, an open source, server-side, HTML embedded scripting language used to create dynamic Web pages.

In an HTML document, PHP script (similar syntax to that of Perl or C ) is enclosed within special PHP tags. Because PHP is embedded within tags, the author can jump between HTML and PHP (similar to ASP and Cold Fusion) instead of having to rely on heavy amounts of code to output HTML. And, because PHP is executed on the server, the client cannot view the PHP code.

PHP can perform any task that any CGI program can do, but its strength lies in its compatibility with many types of databases. Also, PHP can talk across networks using IMAP, SNMP, NNTP, POP3, or HTTP.

PHP was created sometime in 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf. During mid 1997, PHP development entered the hands of other contributors. Two of them, Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans, rewrote the parser from scratch to create PHP version 3 (PHP3).  

Answer 4

A scripting language used to create dynamic web pages on the fly.

A dynamic web page is one which is constructed based on requested and who's content is dynamically populated from some DataStore.

Hope this helps.