PHP PROGRAMMER INDIA

2005-11-15T23:00:00.000-08:00

PHP is a widely used Open Source server-side general-purpose scripting language that is specially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. Its syntax draws upon, Java, and Perl, and is easy to learn. PHP runs on many different platforms and can be used as a standalone executable or as a module under a variety of web servers.

It has excellent support for databases, XML, LDAP, IMAP, Java, various Internet protocols, and general data manipulation, and is extensible via its powerful API. It is actively developed and supported by a talented and energetic international team. Numerous open source and commercial PHP-based application packages are available.

PHP is a scripting language based on the model of preprocessing HTML pages. When the PHP preprocessor in your Web server notices a PHP language tag , the PHP engine is invoked to execute that code.

PHP will be familiar to any programmers who have worked with imperative programming languages; you'll notice syntactical similarities with Perl, C, and Java. Strictly speaking, Java is an imperative programming language, but it also makes use of object-oriented constructs and concepts. PHP borrows from this structure when it is convenient, but it is not a pure OOP language.

In the discussion of ASP.NET above, I mentioned the ODBC driver, and how applications can be built with database abstraction in mind. In PHP, you can also use ODBC to talk to databases, so you already have a whole list of supported databases to choose from. There are also native drivers for MySQL, Oracle, and Postgres. Furthermore, if you are connecting to Oracle, a special OCI8 library provides more feature-rich access to Oracle, allowing you to use such features as LOB, BLOB, CLOB, and BFILE.

You might ask, at this point, "Why are database-dependent libraries being touted as features of PHP?" Database abstraction, or independence, is a feature if you seek to build an application that works with multiple databases in one application or that can easily be ported to another database—when moving from development to production, for instance. And these are indeed valid concerns and considerations.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

As of beta version 4, PHP 5 still has a few shortcomings, including its lack of exceptions, event-based error-handling instances that interrupt the normal flow of a program, jumping your code to a special error-handling section. Java also provides exceptions for error handling, while C++ provides exception handling via the try, catch, and throw syntax. You can, of course, still manage errors in PHP, but the structure is not standardized, so programmers are left to their own devices on how to implement error handling, leading to less consistency and a tendency to reinvent the wheel.

Another weakness is that PHP's function names are case insensitive. Some programmers might find this feature annoying, though this isn't a serious drawback.

I do have misgivings about PHP's object model, however. PHP wasn't designed to be an object-oriented language. Some of those features were added later, although care was made to keep backward compatibility with PHP 3, so you're left with a bit of both models. In fact, many of these weaknesses are addressed in PHP 5. Keep your ears to the ground.

What PHP lacks in a few areas, it makes up for by leaps and bounds in areas in which it excels. The price is right, so you don't have to worry about licensing issues. It's open source, too, so an entire community will keep a close eye on development, identifying bugs and making sure they get fixed. And if there's a feature you don't like, you can dabble with the code. What's more, PHP works native with Apache: It can be compiled as a module or directly into the Apache binary.
But running on Apache means that, with PHP, you can take advantage of whatever server investments you've already made, because Apache runs on Windows, Linux, Solaris, and various other Unix platforms. Also, going with a web server with Apache's track record means security remains a top priority. And, finally, PHP has a smaller code path, meaning there's less server-side code executed to parse and execute your PHP page, which results in more efficient memory and usage and faster execution.

What's New in PHP 5?

The fourth beta release of PHP 5 came out at the end of December 2003, and the change log makes it obvious that many bugs are being identified and ironed out. Although it's still in beta, it's definitely worth taking a look at for all the new features and advances.
PHP 5's major new achievements come in the area of its exception handling and a new object that introduces features that bring true OOP to PHP. Exception handling was certainly one of the most noticeable missing features in PHP 4, and its addition to PHP 5 is certainly a sign of maturity. Exception handling means you have language defined and standardized ways of handling errors in your software. Just use the try, catch, and throw methods, and your PHP code becomes more robust and clean.

PHP Advantages:
It’s an open source Language.
The data types and structures of PHP are easy to use and understand, because can identify PHP what you mean, and convert types automatically.
You don't have to know everything there is to know about PHP to start writing useful programs.
Knowledge of PHP can help you in learning the C language, because its syntax and constructs are similar to the later.
PHP doesn’t necessarily require a program compilation, because it runs right on the web browser.
PHP operations can be done in other languages too.

I am php programmer working in a New Delhi based firm,India.As a php programmer i have developed several php projects including content management system(cms).

Rishi raj nigam
rishirajnigam@gmail.com