• What is PHP?
• HTML embedded scripting language
• Open source
• Native Web server support
• Rich selection of extensions for
• Web developers
• Basic Features of PHP
• Multi-platform language (Linux, Windows NT, BSD, Solaris)
• Connectivity to most popular databases (MySQL, mSQL, ODBC, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Informix, Sybase)
• Support of Java, XML, COM/DCOM (on Windows only), LDAP, IMAP

Basic Design Concepts

• Language optimized for writing HTML- embedded web applications lNative Web server support
• "Compile-first, execute-later” paradigm (fast run-time performance of complex scripts)
• Zend Engine kernel independent of PHP functional shell
• Independent modular components (Run-time Compiler, Executor, Functional API)
• Compatibility with PHP 3
• Functional extendibility (plug-in modules such as optimizer)

Other PHP 5 Highlights

• Native HTTP session support
• Fallback system for clients that don’t support cookies
• Session identifiers carried in the query string of the URL
• PCRE (Perl-like regular expressions)
• Shockwave lIntegrated XML and MySQL support

PHP Resources

• Websites
  - http://www.php.net
  - http://www.zend.com
• Mailing lists
  - php-general-help@lists.php.net
  - php-dev-help@lists.php.net