It’s been a few years since I echo’d my first HELLO WORLD script. PHP has developed and evolved and yes, it has changed since it was first devised as little Perl extensions on Rasmus Lerdorf’s localhost. Still, for a little Home Page script, it has grown into something that is now used on over 200 million websites around the world. That is nothing to be scoffed at. In this article we’ll discuss the two most important things we should try to remember when developing in PHP.
While we all know that PHP is not perfect, I seriously doubt that anything can be done about that right away. That said, there are not many languages that can run pretty much the same in version 6 as they could in version 3 (Yes, I did read what I just said, and I have an old php3 script that still runs on PHP 5, and should run on PHP 6, ok? Ok.) Development in PHP is always a tricky road to follow considering that you are developing something that will not usually run on a server that you have real control over–unless you are lucky enough to be able to afford your own server–and be viewed on a multitude of browsers that all display elements differently, anywhere in the world, over a connection that is usually shakey at best.
Knowing all of this, what are the two most important things we should we try to remember when developing in PHP…?
