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<p><b>PHP</b> (<i>PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor</i>) is a computer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripting_language" title="Scripting language">scripting language</a>, originally designed for producing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_web_page" title="Dynamic web page">dynamic web pages</a>. It is mainly used in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server-side_scripting" title="Server-side scripting">server-side scripting</a>, but can be used from a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_line_interface"title="Command line interface">command line interface</a> or in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standalone" title="Standalone">standalone</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_user_interface" title="Graphical user interface">graphical applications</a>.</p>
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<p>While PHP was originally created by <a
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href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasmus_Lerdorf" title="Rasmus
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Lerdorf">Rasmus Lerdorf</a> in 1994, the main implementation of PHP is
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now produced by The PHP Group and serves as the <a
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href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_facto_standard" title="De facto
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standard"><i>de facto</i> standard</a> for PHP as there is
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no <a
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href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_specification" title="Formal
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specification">formal specification</a>. Released under the <a
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href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP_License" title="PHP
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License">PHP License</a>, the <a
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href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation"
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title="Free Software Foundation">Free Software Foundation</a>
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considers it to be <a
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href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software" title="Free
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software">free software</a>.</p>
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<p>PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is
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especially suited for <a
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href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_development" title="Web
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development">web development</a> and can be embedded
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into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML"
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title="HTML">HTML</a>. It generally runs on a <a
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href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_server" title="Web server">web
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server</a>, taking PHP code as its input and
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creating <a
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href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_page" title="Web page">web
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pages</a> as output. It can be deployed on most web servers and on
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almost every <a
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href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system" title="Operating
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system">operating system</a> and <a
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href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_%28computing%29"
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class="mw-redirect" title="Platform (computing)">platform</a> free of
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charge. PHP is installed on more than 20 million
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websites and 1 million <a
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href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_%28computing%29"
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title="Server (computing)">servers</a>, although the number of
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websites with PHP <a
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href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Installation_%28computer_programs%29"
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title="Installation (computer programs)">installed</a> has declined
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since August 2005.
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It is also the most popular <a
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href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_HTTP_Server" title="Apache
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HTTP Server">Apache</a> module among computers using Apache as a web
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server.
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The most recent major release of PHP was version 5.2.5
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on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_8"
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title="November 8">November 8</a>, <a
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href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007"
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title="2007">2007</a>.</p>
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<p class="attribution">This excerpt is adapted from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP">Wikipedia: PHP</a>. It is used here under a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License">Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0</a> license.</p>
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