01 PHP History Home
The History of Personal Home Page (PHP)
Back To Assignments
Who and Why PHP?
PHP was created back in the early 1990s by Rasmus Lerdorf, and actually started under the name PHP/FI. The program started out as a way to track visits to his resume, but upon a rise in demand, Rasmus rebuilt PHP Tools, the name it was originally under, which allowed for wider implementation. Eventually, Rasmus released the source code for PHP, which allowed users to customize it as the saw fit and provide bug fixes. But this begs the question: Why PHP? PHP's main function, according to PHP.net's manual, was for server side scripting. This allowed for the programmer to create and implement scripts onto their web page that ran along side a server, functioning as a gateway for information to be transfered more efficiently between the server and client.
PHP Environment
Because PHP is meant for server-side scripting, you need a server to implement and execute PHP code properly. Luckily, most computers can function as their own testing server. The best ways to use PHP are in environments that require an API to consistently make contact with the server. This functions as a way to provide the client with requested info from the server or to transfer data to the server from the client seamlessly. PHP also has great compatability with all sorts of server databases, especially SQL.
Usage of PHP on the Internet
PHP is still widely used on the internet. According to w3techs.com, 78.1% of websites that use a server-side programming language use some version of PHP, 70% of which use version 7 of the program. Of course, just because a lot of sites use PHP doesn't mean that it's used by the biggest sites. Data on w3techs shows that PHP is by far the most used langauge, but Java, Ruby, and ASP.net are all used on sites that get more traffic.
To Summarize
PHP's mark on the internet has been made, and it has quite a large footprint. PHP may not be the most sophisticated langauge, but it's one of the easiest to implement and has a huge user base, meaning support is quite easy to find when needed. There are also tons of implementations of the language that can suit many different needs, whether for an e-commerce page or a simple blog-style site. PHP may not be as popular as it once was, but it seems to be here to stay for a long time to come.