The Basics (php, mysql etc)

randyttp

Okay so I have seen alot of people try and describe what php, mysql, perl.. etc is and what its used for.

Maybe i'm just too stupid to get it, but I never can actually understand what its relative uses are for the real world. No matter what I google or read about it there is no clear answers..

Can you please give me an example of a time you used one of these programs (or other similar progreams).

Maybe if I hear about how you actually used it, and exactly what its job and tasks were, maybe I will more understand what they are technically used for so I can better chooese my time which one to learn. Thanks.

Rhysige

PHP is a language designed to deal with data eg. Forms, how it deals with them is really up to the user but for me I frequently submit them to a database eg. mysql.

Mysql is a database, it stores data, doesnt do aything with it just stores all the data and allows it to be drawn from by things like php.

These forums are run on PHP backed by a mySQL database.

mathiaus

I'll have a go Smile

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
Used to format and display data. HTML formats data in different ways such as changing it's colour or placement in a page with use of either a table or frames. All webpages should use HTML to format data. XHTML is nearly the exact same as HTML. It is just more strict but more accesible to a wider variet of people.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
CSS is uses with HTML/XHTML/RSS and many other formatting languages to help display data. An example can be a HTML table. CSS can change the look of the table from its size, padding, text colour, background colour and more. CSS should be used to customise the look of your pages with HTML etc rather than jsut using HTML as the style tags have been depreciated.

PHP (?)
This is a server language. This means the code is executed on the server and the results sent back to you. PHP code is used to many things from calculations from an online currency converter for example to dynamic content which means changing whats on your page. Most people use it for this last option so that they can cut down on space used on their server. This is done by having one template file which is your seign (in HTML and CSS) and content in other files. By setting variables in the URL of a page different content can be shown on that page.
PHP is used in many applications such as this forum for instance!

MYSQL (my Server Query Language)
This is essentialy a database like Microsoft Access. It stores data. It is often used with PHP which can create new database's, store information intot hem, retrieve data and edit data. Again MYSQL is used in this forum to hold all personal data such as our usernames, passwords etc and the posts themselves

PEARL
I dont use pearl and really dont about it sorry

Hopefully others will be able to add (possibly correct Razz

) to what I've written here.

randyttp

Hey thanks guys.. both of your answers have definently shed some light on the subject...

It sounds like PHP is very flexible and can be used for many things (thats probably why its hard to explain what it can do).

If anyone else whats to add some knowledge, please do... Especially in real cases that you have applied any of these scripting languages...

oh and if someone wants to get into the ideas of cgi-bin, perl.. stuff like that. Very Happy

thnn

Mathiaus's description is excellent. Just so you know PHP used to stand for Personal home page, but now because its enbedded in HTML its now called PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor

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