What else can PHP do besides developing web?

PHP scripts are mainly used in the following three areas:

1. Server-side scripts. This is the most traditional and main target area of ​​PHP. Three things are required to do this: a PHP parser (CGI or server module), a web server, and a web browser. You need to install and configure PHP when running the web server. Then, you can use a web browser to access the output of the PHP program, that is, browse the PHP page on the server. If you're just experimenting with PHP programming, all of this can be run on your home computer.

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2. Command line script. You can write a PHP script, and don't need any server or browser to run it. This way, only the PHP parser is needed to execute. This usage is ideal for daily running scripts that rely on cron (Unix or Linux environments) or Task Scheduler (Windows environments). These scripts can also be used to process simple text.

3. Write desktop applications. For desktop applications with graphical interfaces, PHP may not be the best language, but if the user is very proficient in PHP and wants to use some advanced features of PHP in client applications, they can use PHP- GTK to write these programs. In this way, you can also write cross-platform applications. PHP-GTK is an extension of PHP that is not included in the commonly distributed PHP packages.

PHP can be used on all major operating systems, including Linux, various variants of Unix (including HP-UX, Solaris, and OpenBSD), Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, RISC OS, etc. Today, PHP already supports most web servers, including Apache, Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), Personal Web Server (PWS), Netscape, iPlant server, Oreilly Website Pro Server, Caudium, Xitami, OmniHTTPd, etc. For most servers, PHP provides a module; some PHP supports the CGI standard, allowing PHP to work as a CGI processor.

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