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<h1>General Information</h1>
<p class="para">
This section holds the most general questions about PHP:
what it is and what it does.
</p>
<div class="qandaset"><ol class="qandaset_questions"><li><a href="#faq.general.what">
What is PHP?
</a></li><li><a href="#faq.general.acronym">
What does PHP stand for?
</a></li><li><a href="#faq.general.relation-versions">
What is the relation between the versions?
</a></li><li><a href="#faq.general.running-concurent">
Can I run several versions of PHP at the same time?
</a></li><li><a href="#faq.general.bug">
I think I found a bug! Who should I tell?
</a></li></ol></div>
<dl class="qandaentry" id="faq.general.what">
<dt><strong>
What is PHP?
</strong></dt>
<dd class="answer">
<p class="para">
From the <a href="preface.html" class="link">preface of the manual</a>:
</p>
<p class="para">
PHP is an HTML-embedded scripting language. Much of
its syntax is borrowed from C, Java and Perl with a couple of unique
PHP-specific features thrown in. The goal of the language is to
allow web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<dl class="qandaentry" id="faq.general.acronym">
<dt><strong>
What does PHP stand for?
</strong></dt>
<dd class="answer">
<p class="para">
PHP stands for <em class="emphasis">PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor</em>.
This confuses many people because the first word of the acronym is
the acronym. This type of acronym is called a recursive acronym.
For more information, the curious can visit
<a href="http://foldoc.org/" class="link external">» Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing</a>
or the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursive_acronym" class="link external">» Wikipedia entry on
recursive acronyms</a>.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<dl class="qandaentry" id="faq.general.relation-versions">
<dt><strong>
What is the relation between the versions?
</strong></dt>
<dd class="answer">
<p class="para">
PHP/FI 2.0 is an early and no longer supported version of PHP. PHP 3
is the successor to PHP/FI 2.0 and is a lot nicer. PHP 7 is the current
generation of PHP, which uses the Zend
engine 3 which, among other things, offers many additional
<a href="language.oop5.html" class="link">OOP</a> features.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<dl class="qandaentry" id="faq.general.running-concurent">
<dt><strong>
Can I run several versions of PHP at the same time?
</strong></dt>
<dd class="answer">
<p class="para">
Yes. See the <var class="filename">INSTALL</var> file that is included
in the PHP source distribution.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<dl class="qandaentry" id="faq.general.bug">
<dt><strong>
I think I found a bug! Who should I tell?
</strong></dt>
<dd class="answer">
<p class="para">
You should go to the PHP Bug Database and make sure the bug
isn't a known bug. If you don't see it in the database, use
the reporting form to report the bug. It is important to use
the bug database instead of just sending an email to one of the
mailing lists because the bug will have a tracking number assigned
and it will then be possible for you to go back later and check
on the status of the bug. The bug database can be found at
<a href="http://bugs.php.net/" class="link external">» http://bugs.php.net/</a>.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</div>
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