Developers can choose from many scripting languages while developing web applications. Some of the programming languages that developers use commonly are CGI, Perl, ASP and PHP. However, PHP has certain benefits due to which it has become the most popular web development language. IT companies ranging from small to big are using PHP for creating different types of web applications. One can realize the efficiency of the language from the fact that huge applications like Facebook use PHP. Web developers having knowledge and experience in PHP are in high demand in the present times.
Developers are choosing PHP over the other languages due to the following reasons.
Easy to Learn and Simple
The language is easier to grasp than many other programming languages. This is because the language has similarity with languages like Java and C. Even if you know only HTML, learning PHP would be quite easy for you. The language is ideal for beginners since it is easy to understand and clear.
Freedom
PHP offers a higher level of freedom as compared to languages like ASP. NET. The language is an open source. You can use any text editor to write the code. Some of the common text editors which you can use are Notepad, Bluefish, Emacs. On the other hand, while using ASP. NET, you can only use Microsoft Visual Studio for creating the code. PHP is also not OS specific. PHP runs well on operating systems like UNIX, Windows and Linux.
Automatic Refreshment
The language creates dynamic websites that refresh automatically. If you use PHP for developing a website, you do not need to make any changes manually for refreshing it.
Integration:
The language has created more than 30% of the applications present in the World Wide Web. The language integrates with various systems like Pusher. Almost every industry is using the language including large corporations, government, hospitals and banks.
Frameworks
You can find a large number of PHP frameworks. These frameworks help you to carry out a variety of tasks using PHP. You can do tasks like code reuse, session management and finding database libraries easily using PHP frameworks. A popular PHP framework is Slim.
Support
You can find support and documentation for PHP quite easily. The support coming with the language is completely free. You can find many blogs and forums online to help you if you face any coding problem. You can also find support through social media. Among all scripting languages, the user base of PHP is largest. This is one of the reasons behind such a huge support community of the language.
Easy to Solve Problems
Web developers face programming problems very often. In case of PHP, you can easily find the issues and fix them. In case of other languages, you cannot fix problems that easily.
Object Oriented
The language is capable of calling Windows and Java COM objects. You can also create custom classes. Other classes can borrow from custom classes. This increases the efficiency of the language.
These are the major advantages of PHP over other scripting languages. Besides, the language is an open source and free. Applications developed using PHP are very fast and have a high level of security. All these factors have made the language highly popular in the word of web development.
Sneha Ku Mehta is a well-known author who writes articles on PHP training institutes in Kolkata. He contributes his writings for many websites.
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