PHP is one of the most popular programming languages in the IT world. The vast majority of websites are written in it. At the heart of PHP is the ability to change the content of a page just before it is sent to the browser. It is a server-side language. This means that the code is executed on the server and returns the result in the form of HTML code, which is already sent to the user's browser. BizUPLab specialists explained the history and characteristics of this programming language.

History of the language
The history of PHP begins at the turn of the XX-XXI century. The author of the first version is the Danish programmer Rasmus Lerdorf. His idea was to develop a set of tools to simplify the process of creating dynamic web pages. In 1994 he created a set of Perl/CGI scripts that processed HTML document templates. The scripts were called 'PHP Tools for Personal Home Page'. The first implementation of the idea was a visitor counter on the page containing Lerdorf's CV. The numbers on the counter changed when the page was refreshed. It was almost magical at the time.

Already in 1995 the functionality of Perl became insufficient, so the first C interpreter (Hypertext Preprocessor) was written. This allowed Rasmus Lerdorf to improve performance. The script was open source, and Rasmus Lerdorf collected user feedback, dealt with comments and bugs, and extended and improved his own development. It eventually evolved into what is now commonly known as the PHP programming language, a language for non-visual and non-template creation of websites and web applications for a variety of purposes and directions.

In 1998, Israeli programmers introduced the third version of the language. Its main advantage - support for additional modules that extend the capabilities of the core. It was this version that laid the foundation and determined the popularity of the language.

Where PHP is used
PHP is used to build pages from modules, create CMS for websites, develop authorisation forms and remember users. PHP was originally designed for web development, unlike its two main competitors, Python and Ruby. It fits this niche perfectly. PHP can also be used for automation, or scripting. In theory, you could write desktop applications in PHP. But it is better not to. Any programming language should be used for the purpose for which it was designed.

Because PHP was originally designed for web development, it is used for that purpose in the vast majority of cases. Approximately 80% of websites are written in PHP. The world's most popular CMS (Content Management System) - website content management systems are developed in this language. Wordpress, Drupal and Joomla are written in PHP. Therefore, almost all sites that use CMS, which is the vast majority, naturally use PHP. In addition, since PHP is one of the easiest languages to learn, the services of developers are quite cheap. Therefore, the cost of creating self-described PHP sites is also quite low. Accordingly, there are many such sites.