Research Documentation 01 Php History

PHP History - Nathan Barlow

Who and Why PHP

PHP was created in 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf. He created the programming language with a focus on making his personal homepage. In face, PHP originally stood for "Personal Home Page" but has since been changed to Hypertext Preprocessor. Lerdorf wanted to ensure that forms online could communicate with databases for transferring and storing information. His language was originally used to create simple, but dynamic web applications.

PHP Environment

PHP was created when Lerdorf started working with Command Gateway Interface (CGI) and wanted to extend its functionality. It was never meant to be used as a programming language, but it caught attention and gained traction. It is now able to be used to create functional, dynamic websites and is processed by the server.

Usage of PHP on the Internet

PHP is a widely used server-side language. In fact, 78.9% of websites with a known server-side programming language use PHP. The overwhelming majority of websites continue to use it to develop dynamic websites, including Wikipedia, Facebook, and Etsy.

Summary of the Documentation

Despite its age, PHP has stood the test of time and is still widely used today. It is a well documented, versatile language that can be applied to countless uses for websites. It will likely persist for many years to come.