PHP Help

Okay now I must say that I've got no clue about PHP only that it seems to be fairly popular.

Now here comes the questions.

What can it do??

Why use it??

Is it easy to learn??

Do I need a special server to do this??

Is there free web space that can provide the space or this??

Can I make my own forum with it??

Answers??

Please help. Thanks a million.

What kind of system do I have to use??

Do I need any special software??

Is it costly??

Are there free alternatives??

Does Dreamweaver do it??

More Answers??

Php can do a lot of things. If you've ever heard of ASP or PERL, it can do the same thing. Basically it's a way to interface with and control a database, and a lot of other back end programming stuff. The code is executed on the server rather than the browser, so the viewer doesn't even know it's there.

Use it because it's relatively easy, and provides a lot of great features to web sites. It's also free.

You just need a server that supports php. If you run your own server, download PHP from www.php.net.

I don't know of any free servers that support it, but this topic has been brought up several times before on this forum, so try a search. Or just do a search on the web for it.

You can make your own forum with it, or download a free pre-made one like this one and others from the web.

I think php is available for Linux, windows, unix, and BeOS. Though I'm not positive. So if your server runs any of those, you can use it. (what else would it use?) Check www.php.net for all of the systems that it's compatible with.

It's completely free! So is MySQL, which is the database you will want to use with it.

Dreamweaver does not do it by itself, although when you look at the source of your page, it will color the PHP code automatically. But it will not write any code for you. But most of the time you can find scripts on the web that will do most of the things you would need to do. So it's just copy paste, and customize it a little.

That should help you out some, but get out on the web and read up about it on your own. You'll learn a lot more.

http://www.php.net
http://www.phpbuilder.com
http://php.resourceindex.com/
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/programming/php/tutorials/tutorial4.html
http://www.phorum.org
http://www.turbolift.com/mysql/
http://code.box.sk/php.php3