Php

[MikeCouves]

I am not that experiences with PHP, but what does it do? It looks like the sites that use them all have the same layout. A menu on the left side, text in the middle, and a menu on the right side. I use Dreamweaver, and I was wondering how I can use this stuff?

[synreal]

curses, i just finished typing a nice thorough introduction to PHP and then the server hickupped and killed my post :(

anyway, PHP - www.php.net - (PHP: hypertext preprocessor - gotta love inclusive acronyms) is a very powerful programming language (much like ASP, C++, JavaScript, ...) most commonly used on top of *nix based web servers.

the reason many PHP based sites look alike is because the people that create them oft times use a template or a site generator to assist them. (PHPNuke - www.phpnuke.org and PostNuke - www.postnuke.com - jump to mind)

to the best of my knowledge, dreamweaver has no built in ability to generate PHP, but you can manually enter code with it.

for example:
<?php echo "hello world"; ?>

generates:
hello world

[MikeCouves]

I've had the server hickup on very long posts, very annoying indeed. Well I was reading over the website and I got a program. What does the program do if I can just use code?

[synreal]

what program did you get?

[MikeCouves]

PHP 4.0 I believe.

[synreal]

Ok, it sounds like you got the server files.

Have you ever hand written webbased code before? if not i would try to guide you more towards a language like ASP, as i have found it to be easier to get a grasp of. PHP is a wonderful tool, but can be a bit overwhelming to tackle first.

[MikeCouves]

Well I am not so great with hand written code. I prefer to stay away from it. What's ASP? Is it alot easier? You always see that at the end of websites, like www.example.com/home.asp for example.

[Miscue]

Hehe... you have much to learn young grasshopper. :)

[synreal]

ASP stands for Active Server Pages and is a Microsoft product. Anyway you look at it, if you want to work with programming languages you will have to get your hands dirty with some hand written code.

To get started you will need:
<li>a text editor (notepad, dreamweaver, ...)</li>
<li>a webserver (virtual or real)</li>
<li>and the server apps to run a specific language</li>

If you are running a windows system you can setup a virtual web server on your machine using a utility that should be on your windows install disc (either IIS or Personal Web Server, depending on your OS version)

[MikeCouves]

Hahaha yes Miscue I do. Well I am off to school, I will get back to this when I am home. Thanks so far syn!