Հայոց Русский

Extra Block Types (EBT) - New Layout Builder experience❗

Extra Block Types (EBT) - styled, customizable block types: Slideshows, Tabs, Cards, Accordions and many others. Built-in settings for background, DOM Box, javascript plugins. Experience the future of layout building today.

Demo EBT modules Download EBT modules

❗Extra Paragraph Types (EPT) - New Paragraphs experience

Extra Paragraph Types (EPT) - analogical paragraph based set of modules.

Demo EPT modules Download EPT modules

Scroll
  1. Home
  2. Articles

Introduction to PHP Programming

15/04/2025, by Ivan

Each of us, in one way or another, has engaged in programming at least on a basic level. The simplest example of such programming is setting an alarm clock to wake up on time. There are also mobile phones, automatic washing machines, microwave ovens, refrigerator regulators, TV timers, etc.

Any machine, including a computer, performs commands specifically created by a person. The more complex the technology, the more operations it can perform. Currently, the computer is one of the most complex technical devices. It can solve very complex problems. However, for a computer to solve such tasks, a person must write a special program for it in one of the programming languages.
Programming languages (PL) for computers began development in the mid-1950s. Today, there are more than 2,500 different programming languages and their variants. Most problems can be solved using any of them.

All programming languages can be divided into two groups: low-level and high-level languages. Low-level languages (like assembly) are only understandable to computers and a small group of highly skilled programmers, which is why they are called "machine languages." Writing programs in these languages is a complex and labor-intensive process. Most programmers use high-level languages to write programs. High-level languages are more human-readable and act as intermediaries between humans and computers, allowing communication with computers in a more familiar way. Such languages require a "translator" to convert to machine language—a compiler or interpreter—but the programming process is simplified. The most well-known high-level programming languages include Java, C++, PHP, ASP, Ruby, Python, and many others. Each has many versions. PHP and ASP are primarily used on the Internet. PHP is considered one of the simplest programming languages.
In terms of efficiency and ease of programming, PHP ranks between ASP and Ruby. Therefore, it is most suitable for school students to learn. The syntax in all PHP versions is almost the same.
Any freely available version of PHP is suitable for learning.

Programming Languages

A programming language is a formal symbolic system (set of commands) that a computer understands. A programming language defines a set of lexical, syntactic, and semantic rules used in writing computer program algorithms. The alphabet of a language is the set of symbols used in that PL.

A programming language is designed so that a computer can understand instructions for executing a program written in that language. Programming languages are artificial languages. They differ from natural languages in that they are meant to transmit commands and data from a human to a computer, while natural languages are used for communication between people. A programming language has a limited number of "keywords" that are understood by the compiler and strict rules for writing commands.

Before writing a program in a high-level language, a programmer must create an algorithm to solve the problem—a step-by-step plan of actions needed to solve the task. Therefore, languages that require a prior algorithm are often called algorithmic languages. To write a program, one can use a simple text editor (e.g., Notepad), and then compile it into machine code to get an executable program. However, it is easier and more convenient to use specially developed programming environments.

The history of PHP begins in 1995, when Rasmus Lerdorf created a simple application in Perl to analyze visits to his resume on a website. Then, when several people started using the application and demand grew, Lerdorf named his creation Personal Home Page Tools version 1 and released it for free download. From this moment, PHP's popularity began to soar.

PHP is a convenient language for learning programming not only because it teaches how to write programs correctly but also how to develop proper methods for solving programming problems.

References:

1. http://scholtro.narod.ru/metodika/DocMetod/Metod_posobie_PascalABC.pdf

Introduction to "Methodological Guide for Programming in Pascal abc". O.F. Yeryomin (2009)

This article was created for the purposes of education, science, and culture.