WHAT IS PHP AND WHY SHOULD I (Web hosting mysql) CARE? Embracing
WHAT IS PHP AND WHY SHOULD I CARE? Embracing the power of code If you re the sort of web designer or developer who uses a visual design tool, such as Dreamweaver, GoLive, or FrontPage, and never looks at the underlying code, it s time to rethink your approach. You re rapidly becoming an endangered species and not the furry or cuddly sort that environmentalists will campaign to save from extinction. Good-looking design is definitely a top priority and always will be but it s no longer enough on its own. Designers need to have a solid grasp of the underlying structure of their pages. That means a knowledge of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) or its more recent incarna tion, Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). The CSS Zen Garden, cultivated by Dave Shea, played a pivotal role in convincing designers of the power of code. The underlying XHTML of every page showcased at www.csszengarden.com is identical, but as Figure 1-1 shows, the CSS produces stunningly different results. You don t need to be a CSS superhero, but as long as you have a good understanding of the basics of XHTML and CSS, you re ready to take your web design skills to the next stage by adding PHP to your arsenal. Figure 1-1. CSS Zen Garden has opened the eyes of web designers to the importance of code. Creating pages that think for themselves PHP is a server-side language. That means it runs on the web server, unlike CSS or JavaScript, which run on the client side (that is, the computer of the person visiting your site). This gives you much greater control. As long as the code works on your server, everyone receives the same output. For instance, Chapter 4 shows you how to create a random image generator with PHP. You can do the same thing with JavaScript, but what visitors to your site actually see depends on two things: JavaScript being enabled in their web browser, and the browser they are using understanding the version of JavaScript you have used. With PHP, this doesn t matter, because the dynamic process takes place entirely
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