php programming, study 1 for beginner..

This tutorials will be for beginners as well as intermediate level PHP guys.
Now before we dive into learning PHP, lets ask ourselves "what is PHP?", "what is it used for?", what can PHP do?, "what is a PHP file?", "why PHP". I know many people will know what PHP is and others, like i said before this lessons are for beginners as well as intermediate level PHP guys. If you already know what PHP is and other basics, you can move on to the next chapters but if you aren't then i will start by defining and explaining what PHP is, what you can use it for and other. So lets begin.

PHP is a server scripting language, and a powerful tool for making dynamic and interactive Web pages.

PHP is a widely-used programming language.

What is PHP?

*. PHP is an acronym for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor"
*. PHP is a widely-used, open source scripting language
*. PHP scripts are executed on the server
*. PHP is free to download and use

Top websites like Facebook.com, Naijaloaded.com.ng,
Wordpress.com and many others are built with PHP.


What is a PHP File?

*. PHP files can contain text, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP codes
*. PHP code are executed on the server, and the result is returned to the browser as plain HTML
*. PHP files have extension ".php, .php5" for now, i don't know about the future

What Can PHP Do?

*. PHP can generate dynamic page content
*. PHP can create, open, read, write, delete, and close files on the server
*. PHP can collect form data
*. PHP can send and receive cookies
*. PHP can add, delete, modify data in your database
*. PHP can be used to control user-access
*. PHP can encrypt data, with PHP you are not limited to output HTML. You can output images, PDF files, and even Flash movies. You can also output any text, such as XHTML and XML.

Why PHP?

*. PHP runs on various platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, etc.)
*. PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.)
*. PHP supports a wide range of databases
*. PHP is free. You can download it from the official PHP resource: www.php.net
*. PHP is easy to learn and runs well on the server side


By now i am sure i have filled your heads with something.
In our next chapter, i am gonna take you through the basics of php.

If you have any comment, don't forget the below textarea that is too open for your comments and i am hoping to see them.