PHP

As I wrote about my favorite language, python, I figure I might as well write about other languages I like. This time its PHP.

Ever wanted to write an interactive, dynamically generated web page or site? This language is built mainly for that exact purpose, plus its very powerful. That is why its the most popular server-side languages used for web programming.

PHP is pretty easy to learn and use. Its main site, php.net, has some awesome, pretty thorough, documentation to guide the learning process. Unlike python, the functions are all global. You don't need to import anything to use it. As with python, variable types don't have to be explicitly specified. In php this is called 'type juggling'.

Ok, now for some of the basics. All php code must be surrounded by the start(<?) and end(?>) tags, in order to separating php from html. Variable names begin with the dollar sign ($) and can contain letters, numbers (except for the first character), underscores(_), and some others (ascii 127+). Instructions end with a semicolon(;). Here's a very basic example:

<?
$some_variable = "Hello World!";
echo $some_variable;
?>

This will simply store the text "Hello World!" in a variable then output it. You can do a lot more with php, but these are just some of the basics. You can find more help with learning php from w3schools. This language can also be used for command-line programs, and even graphical programs (via gtk).

Best of luck!