“…The technology that supports the Web continues to evolve,
and one of the latest mutations involves capitalising on its very
user-driven interactivity. The days of all-static content are
past; the Web has evolved to a point at which many sites actually
remember personal preferences for each of their (potentially
millions) of visitors. News sites can display stories in only
those categories you find interesting; online music stores can
provide you with listings of new works sorted in order by your
favourite artists; Web search engines can implicitly restrict the
types of content they’ll display. The possiilities are endless, and
the key is generating a unique presentation for each viewer.”
“There are a number of ways of accomplishing this, from the
primitive fly-swatter capabilities provided by server-side includes
to the tactical nuke Extra Strength features found in application
servers. The PHP scripting language falls somewhere into the middle
ground, supplying phenomenal capabilities for free.”
“…PHP is a scripting language, with a particular affinity for
and emphasis on enhancing Web pages. It has a syntax very similar
to C (with a smattering of Perl and shell), and includes lots and
lots of functions for things like database access, dealing with CGI
requests, and image creation and manipulation.”