It was the year 1994 when Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf created PHP, initially known as Personal Home Page but now stands for recursive initialism PHP : Hypertext Preprocessor. Since its birth, the scripting language remains in vogue and we tried to decipher the reason behind it. Walk with us to get familiarized with justifications.
Easy to Use
The well-known PHP is an open-source scripting language, used mainly for website development. Even the coder with basic knowledge of computer fundamentals can use PHP. It is one of the simplest yet best-performing languages in all configurations. With a low learning curve and smooth execution, it runs on various platforms such as Windows, Unix, Linux, Mac OS X.
PHP was initially created for building web pages and thus the framework is more sophisticated than simple. But as time passed it grew its complexity and now provides many other features embedded in other scripting languages.
Less Learning Time
PHP is very “easy to learn” and “easy to use”, as experts say. One can build a working dynamic web page in about a short span of time using PHP. Any enthusiast developer who wants to learn to code can try their hand at PHP and if their learning skill aligns with the zeal, a reliable developer will be introduced to the industry in a month or two.
Gratifying Performance
The webpage architecture has an uncomplicated syntax and delivers satisfactory performance. You will be surprised to know that most of the renowned websites are primarily developed using PHP, and with time they have added other computer languages too to the list aiming to get more advanced working for better user experience. This list consists of Wikipedia, Facebook, Tumblr, Slack, WordPress, and many more. Here are some notable features of these sites:
– Wikipedia : Almost everyone pays a visit to Wikipedia. The popular website uses PHP along with MySQL/MariaDB as their database backend. In 2014 they shifted to HHVM to make the execution better enabling page loading two times faster than before.
– Facebook : Having an audience of 1.43 billion people, the recognised Facebook was fundamentally developed using PHP. With its birth in 2004, the social media platform has utilised PHP’s proficiency to generate dynamic content. Zuckerberg and Moskowitz wrote the entire core in PHP only, thus creating a “Domino Effect” and influencing other huge companies to use PHP as well.
– Tumblr : The native home of memes, the Tumblr community has brought about 325 million blogs and 555 million monthly invitees.
– Slack : Laid foundation in 2009 for go-to team communication, Slack app uses PHP in their backend to maximize workflow capability while quickening up the web request time and minimizing program glitches.
– WordPress : With no spoiler alert world’s largest CMS (Content Management System), WordPress, is completely based on PHP. The website uses PHP to fetch key elements from the database and harvest them in static HTML.
Old Websites are based on PHP
As we have looked through it, most of the old websites are created using PHP. Therefore it is easier to update the old framework than creating a new one. Which is the reason behind the availability of PHP developers in abundance. A well-familiar developer can customize the handy frameworks to obtain results par other languages while costing less to the companies.