<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Preface</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="PHP Manual" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="PHP Manual" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Getting Started" HREF="getting-started.html"><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="preface" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >PHP Manual</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="getting-started.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="preface" ><H1 ><A NAME="preface" >Preface</A ></H1 ><BLOCKQUOTE CLASS="ABSTRACT" ><DIV CLASS="abstract" ><A NAME="AEN54" ></A ><P ></P ><P > <SPAN CLASS="acronym" >PHP</SPAN >, which stands for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor" is a widely-used Open Source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. Its syntax draws upon C, Java, and Perl, and is easy to learn. The main goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated webpages quickly, but you can do much more with PHP. </P ><P ></P ></DIV ></BLOCKQUOTE ><P > This manual consists primarily of a <A HREF="funcref.html" > function reference</A >, but also contains a <A HREF="langref.html" >language reference</A >, explanations of some of PHP's major <A HREF="features.html" >features</A >, and other <A HREF="appendixes.html" >supplemental</A > information. </P ><P > You can download this manual in several formats at <A HREF="http://www.php.net/docs.php" TARGET="_top" >http://www.php.net/docs.php</A >. The <A HREF="http://www.php.net/downloads.php" TARGET="_top" >downloads</A > are updated as the content changes. More information about how this manual is developed can be found in the <A HREF="about.html" >'About the manual'</A > appendix. </P ><P > See also <A HREF="history.html" >PHP History</A > </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="getting-started.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >PHP Manual</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Getting Started</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >