Php For Hypertext Processor Computer Science Essay

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

CSC 3315

Assignment 1 : PL Evaluation

Topic : PHP Language

Lamiae Benaissa

Outline:

Background …………………………………………………….. 1

Evaluation ………………………………………………………..

Recommendation …………………………………………………..

Bibliography ………………………………………………………

BACKGROUND

PHP for Hypertext Processor is one of the most noted scripting languages on the internet. It is highly used mainly because it provides professional advanced programming features. It can be utilized for different standard network protocols and web developments. PHP is actually a web-specific general purpose scripting language designed to generate interactive web pages and standalone web applications. It is a server-side language meaning that the code is executed on the web server- not on the web browser- producing an HTML that is by then sent to the client. The syntax of this scripting language is close to that of C programming language. It is also quite similar to Perl. Actually PHP is a combination of different programming languages such as Java, C and Perl. Since PHP is so much embedded into web servers and applications and widely used by computer programmers, it would be necessary to know when, where, how, and by whom it was created.

Originally created by Rasmus Lerdof in 1994, PHP was supposed to be a personal project consisting of source basic web tools, a parser and some macros (PHP History & Information, 2008). Rasmus was actually looking for an efficient way to write scripts on his web server, a web tool that will work with HTML and still be more flexible in generating web content and processing data passed back to the web browser. Rasmus essentially used Perl to create this new language and called it “Personal Home Page/ Forms Interpreter”. This technology technically allowed him to achieve his requirements. The first version of PHP was not really used in other websites other than Rasmus’s website and later on was referred to as PHP/FI instead of personal home page/ forms interpreter (The History of PHP, 2009).

In 1998, a third version of PHP/FI or PHP 3.0 was generated to fix bugs and adjust the PHP design core. This version of the language was really gaining popularity among internet users. It was installed in approximately 10% of the web servers. As the number of websites was growing, PHP 3.0 was more commonly used. The reason why it had been so popular is because it has great extensibility attributes and it consists of a strong and consistent syntax. Besides, it offers great facilities and capabilities to the web users and programmers, provides good database interfaces and supports object-oriented programs. In addition to that, it performs complex mathematical calculations, etc.

In 2000, PHP 4.0 was released. It has the core functioning of PHP 3.0 with some added features and highly improved performance. The new version of this scripting language supports more web servers, HTTPS sessions, object-oriented programs with the new concept of ‘classes’, output buffering, encryption methods, etc (History of PHP; PHP 4, 2013). It also improves memory handling. The fourth version of PHP is much more efficient, reliable and faster.

Later in 2004, another modified version of PHP came to life. The PHP 5.0 presents reworked features from previous versions. It supports advanced object-oriented programs, embedded SQLite, MySQL features, better XML tools, etc. The new technology also shows more flexibility, productivity and safety.

Then the sixth version of this scripting language came with big different capabilities and upgrades to the core of the scripting language. It introduces Unicode, 64-bit and namespaces, very advanced object-oriented programming functionalities, alternative PHP cache and changed extensions.

If all those versions of PHP are used in computer programming up until now, it is basically thanks to all developers and programmers that worked together to modify, redesign and improve the original version made by Rasmus Lerdof in 1994. Rasmus Lerdof- a Systems Design engineer- was the one behind the PHP project and many other open source projects. He was an infrastructure architect at Yahoo for 7 years. Since 2012, he is working with Etsy. Besides Rasmus, there were Zeev Suraski, Tel Aviv and Andi Gutmas who developed and took the first PHP version into the next levels.

Now that we have covered the history and authorship of the language PHP, it is time to get deeply into its intended applications and actual features. Even though we might have scratched that in surface in the previous paragraphs, it is necessary to deeply get into the details for the sake of a better understanding and assimilation of the language.

Generally when we talk about a GP language for (General Purpose language), we intuitively relate to its features. Actually PHP benefits from a diverse set of attributes. First thing first, it is easy to use, learn and implement. It is an open source project- free and opened to everyone. The third interesting fact about PHP before we move on to its feature, it is broadly used on almost every available platform and web servers. So PHP has the ability to function as an object-oriented-programming language. It can handle strings and arrays as well. Another important thing about PHP is that it supports a large range of databases. Besides, it has useful text processing features that consist of Perl and other extensions to parse and it standardizes XML extensions (USES OF PHP, 2003) (What can PHP do?, 2013). Now that we have looked at the features of the language PHP, it would be easier to understand its current applications.

PHP is primarily used as a web development scripting language to generate HTML content. Since it consists of various features and modules compatible with diverse environments, it can perform large range of specific and complex tasks like doing all types of calculations, manipulating data files, collecting user information, reading and parsing remote XML documents. It can also go beyond side-scripting and develops client-side GUI applications that operate on different platforms. Besides, PHP can execute scripts from a command line. As we can see, PHP works in mainly three fields: Server-side scripting, writing desktop applications and command- line-side scripting. It was previously mentioned that PHP mainly focuses on HTML content, but it cannot only generate HTML output, it also outputs PDF files, XML files, flash movies, text and images. Then it forms a server-side cache for dynamic content by auto-generating the files and saving them (USES OF PHP, 2003) (What can PHP do?, 2013).

EVALUATION (slides’ approach)

As any other language, PHP shows pros and limitations. On one hand, it is very suitable and flexible in performing some specific tasks and on the other hand it is not that efficient with some applications. It is a remarkably reliable language though. Apparently, PHP- unlike HTML- is very suitable for building dynamic web page content with interactive features like user input and time/date. Since it is a server-side language meaning - as explained previously- that it runs on a user’s browser from the same server, the logic is executed the same way. Unlike in java-script, this feature is a very suitable because it guaranties security. The original code is hidden from users and the passwords and interface are stored with database. In terms of simplicity, unlike ASP.net, PHP is simpler and easier in terms of development (Hindinger). It has an understandable syntax and many useful sources and libraries for graphics and PDFs. It is very scalable and runs on a wide variety of platforms such as Windows, Linux and Mac (What are the advantages and disadvantages of PHP?). So the language is simple, efficient, reliable, secure and readable.

Even though PHP has many advantages, it has some limitations. It is not suitable for building desktop applications, it does not have good error handling, and it tends to run slower than other languages (Paul). Besides, it does not support nulls and SQL Null type. Given that PHP is a simple language, it interfaces with fewer other languages than ASP.net which is optimized to interact with C#, C++ and VB.net (Hindinger).