Introduction to PHP PHP (which, after much debate, has been decided to stand for Hypertext Preprocessor) is a "a server-side, cross-platform, HTML embedded scripting language." The PHP language is quite powerful and allows a Webmaster to create extremely sophisticated Web pages. Like Perl "CGI" scripts, PHP programs are executed "on-the-fly" by your Web server. Unlike Perl, PHP scripts are embedded within your HTML file itself, making the program easier to read, debug and understand at a glance. Furthermore, PHP contains many Web-specific functions that facilitate advanced Web features such as form interpretation, cookies, http-header manipulation, database access, automatic headers and footers, dynamic page generation, etc. Advantages of PHP Developed specifically for use with the Web, many Web programmers have found PHP to be a welcome alternative to Perl CGI scripts. PHP is a simple language to learn for anyone familiar with Perl, and offers a greater degree of simplicity and elegance, often saving dozens of steps and keeping the number of files to maintain at a bare minimum. Does aNet support PHP? Your aNet Web Hosting Site supports both versions 2.x and 3.x of PHP. Your PHP scripts are denoted by their extension, either .phtml or .php3 PHP files using the extension .phtml will be interpreted by PHP 2.0.PHP files using the extension .php3 will be interpreted by PHP 3.0. PHP 2.x is supported only for backward compatibility for customers who already use it, and will be phased out at some point in the future. We strongly recommend that new customers use version 3.0 (.php3). Note: Although aNet's web servers are equipped with PHP, aNet's Support staff cannot assist in the creation or maintenance of PHP scripts. For help with your PHP scripts, visit php.net's support page at http://www.php.net/support.php . Learning about PHP Complete documentation, as well as sample sites, example code, and links to other sites are available at the PHP home page:http://www.php.net .