Chapter 1. Orientation and First Steps

There are lots of great reasons to write computer programs in PHP. Maybe you want to learn PHP because you need to put together a small web site for yourself that has some interactive elements. Perhaps PHP is being used where you work and you have to get up to speed. This chapter provides context for how PHP fits into the puzzle of web site construction: what it can do and why it's so good at what it does. You'll also get your first look at the PHP language and see it in action.