PHP (recursive acronym 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.

What distinguishes PHP from something like client-side JavaScript is that the code is executed on the server. You can even configure your web server to process all your HTML files with PHP, and then there’s really no way that users can tell what you have up your sleeve.

The best things in using PHP is that it is extremely simple for a newcomer, but offers many advanced features for a professional programmer. So, don’t be afraid of using PHP. You can jump in, in a short time, and start writing simple scripts in a few hours!