Where is PHP headed?_PHP Tutorial-PHP Tutorial-php.cn

PHP4: Behind the Miracle In 1995, Rasmus was using PHP to write his personal homepage; today, PHP has become a popular scripting language around the world. More and more sites choose to use PHP. Even Yahoo gave up its own scripts and switched to PHP. Websites that support it. It can be said that PHP is a miracle. I have always believed that behind every miracle there is a reason. Now, let us look at the success of PHP through this miracle. 1 Simple and easy to use PHP has a very low entry barrier and its requirements for users are minimal. For those who have learned C language, it takes almost no time to use PHP. Their syntax is so similar that I often wonder if adding a $ before a C language variable can change it to PHP. This has led a large number of C programmers to choose PHP for web scripting. In addition, compared to ASP's component system and Java's huge class library, PHP's function library is much easier to learn. In terms of programming style, PHP is even more free. You can use N styles to write your scripts. These features make PHP the language of choice for beginners. Seizing the beginner market is an important strategy. Just as anyone has a vivid memory of their first love, people often have deep feelings for the language they first learn. Even if I later grow up and switch to another language, I will still always remember the language I first learned. At this point, PHP does an excellent job. 2. Proper tailoring. The PHP development team is a group of people who know the Internet best. They know very well what users want. PHP is to be an excellent network scripting language, and it is just to be a network scripting language. The function set provided by PHP is quite powerful in the network area, and the focus is on network applications. Features such as component-less file upload in PHP and support for multiple databases all demonstrate this characteristic. By the way, PHP even supports ACCESS databases. Focus makes PHP perform extremely well on the Internet. Only when you lose can you gain. 3. Strong support PHP has strong support from the OpenSource group, and there are tens of thousands of open source codes on the Internet. You can integrate several existing programs to implement your application, or you can analyze master-level code to improve it. PHP also has many extension projects to enhance PHP's functionality in certain aspects. For example, PEAR focuses on programming standardization and code reuse, Smarty provides compilable template technology, and even GTK develops desktop programs. After analyzing these reasons, we can see that the success of PHP benefits from the strategic vision of the PHP development team. PHP provides a minimum working set, allowing users to efficiently complete the applications they need in the simplest way. This is exactly what beginners need. Then it provides solutions in all aspects through convenient extensions, so that you only need to learn the things in the field you want to use. When you cover more and more fields, your level will also improve. When you are familiar with most fields, you will look back and find that you have reached the mountainside without realizing it. PHP also provides us with a learning attitude. ASP.net + J2EE: Storm is coming. The wave of innovation in the network scripting world was first initiated by Microsoft's ASP.net. In ASP.net, there is a very attractive thing - event-driven mechanism. This is a very common concept in desktop programming, but in script programming, event driving means encapsulating server-side scripts (such as PHP, JSP, ASP) and client-side scripts (such as JavaScript and VbScript) to make them work together. In this way, programming will become extremely convenient. Another advantage of event driving in the .net environment is that you don’t even need any server-side scripts or client-side scripts, because in ASP.net, you can directly use languages like C#?? You don’t even need $ add. This paves the way for traditional programmers in the MS camp to switch to network development. At the same time, it also makes PHP suffer a big blow in the beginner market. It is foreseeable that the number of traditional programmers turning to PHP will be greatly reduced in the future. However, the biggest problem with ASP.net is that it can only run on Windows, and now mainland China is vigorously developing Linux. This makes PHP's living space seem a bit wider, but let's take a look at Java. Java is also a miracle. The first version was released in 1995, and now it has three versions, covering the three major application areas of embedded systems (J2me), desktop programs (J2se) and servers (J2ee). More importantly, Java has been recognized by the vast majority of programmers. Most of the best computer books in the world now use C++ or Java as the description language. Java is almost like C, it has become a religion. Therefore, we should not assume that programmers in the Java camp will switch to PHP. At the same time, PHP has lost many advantages in the face of Java, which is also open source and cross-platform. JSP in J2ee has put considerable pressure on PHP in the beginner market. The beginner market, ease of use, and open source support that once made PHP successful are all being challenged. As machine performance continues to improve, everyone's requirements for efficiency are gradually decreasing. It can be said that PHP needs to compete with ASP. It is not easy to survive and grow in the gap between net and J2EE. PHP itself still has many problems. Like too many low-level users. A large number of developers are in the entry-level stage and do not know how to improve themselves, resulting in a large amount of irregular and inefficient open source code, and the next batch of beginners will learn from these bad codes, and so on recursively.On the other hand, advanced users have to turn to other languages to develop large-scale applications due to PHP's incomplete object-oriented features and other reasons. PHP5: Strong coffee flavor The PHP development team released BETA1 of PHP5 in the middle of this year, from which we can see PHP's counterattack. First of all, the development of PHP4 is still going on, and we can be sure that the development of PHP4 will continue for a long time. The purpose of this is to consolidate existing users, while gradually integrating some of the new features of PHP5 in future PHP4 versions to achieve a smooth transition from PHP4 to PHP5. Let’s look at the changes in PHP5. In PHP5, we see too many shadows of Java. The OO system is almost a COPY of Java, which ensures that high-level PHP users will not be lost, allowing them to easily use the latest technology system to build their own applications. On the other hand, it also provides convenience for Java programmers to use PHP, although such situations may be relatively rare. After improving the OO system, PHP has the ability to truly enter the enterprise-level market. Then PHP5 also added a lot of its own things, such as __get, to make the system easier to use. What I don’t know is, will this cup of cappuccino be as popular as Java? From the changes in PHP5, we can see the future direction of PHP. One is to compete with JSP and strive to replace JSP in some aspects and become the glue that binds JavaBeans and Servlets. This requires a closer relationship between PHP and Java. The Zend group is participating in the specification of the JSR. This specification will allow you to directly new a Java object and call its methods in PHP. This will also enable PHP to enter the enterprise market faster. In addition, if scripts written in PHP can be directly compiled into Binary Code and run on Jvm, PHP's prospects will be much better. Another direction is to integrate Java and .net and integrate existing resources in some large-scale applications. We can already call com components and Java objects in PHP4, and I believe PHP5 will provide more support for this in the future. No matter what, whether it is competing with J2ee and .net or integrating with it, PHP will have to take a road full of thorns. But since PHP has come all the way to where it is today, what reason do we have not to believe that it can go further? Best Wishes, PHP. PS This is just Easy's personal opinion on the future development of PHP. It may not be very mature, but it is just for everyone's reference.