Unique Features
If you are familiar with other server side language like ASP.NET or
JSP you might be wondering what makes PHP so special, or so different
from these competing alternatives well, here are some reasons:
- Performance
- Portability(Platform Independent)
- Ease Of Use
- Open Source
- Third-Party Application Support
- Community Support
Performance
Scripts written in PHP executives faster than those written in other
scripting language, with numerous independent benchmarks, putting the
language ahead of competing alternatives like JSP,ASP.NET and PERL.The
PHP 5.0 engine was completely redesigned with an optimized memory
manager to improve performance, and is noticeable faster than previous
versions.In addition, third party accelerators are available to further
improve performance and response time.
Portability
PHP is available for UNIX, MICROSOFT WINDOWS, MAC OS, and OS/2.PHP
Programs are portable between platforms. As a result, a PHP application
developed on, say, Windows will typically run on UNIX without any
significant issues.This ability to easily undertake cross-platform
development is a valuable one, especially when operating in a multi
platform corporate environment or when trying to address multiple market
segments.
Ease Of Use
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”, Said Leonardo da Vinci,
and by that measure, PHP is an extremely sophisticated programming
language. Its syntax is clear and consistent, and it comes with
exhaustive documentation for the 5000+ functions included with the core
distributions.This significantly reduces the learning curve for both
novice and experienced programmers, and it’s one of the reasons that PHP
is favored as a rapid prototyping tool for Web-based applications.
Open Source
PHP is an open source project – the language is developed by a
worldwide team of volunteers who make its source code freely available
on the Web, and it may be used without payment of licensing fees or
investments in expensive hardware or software .This reduces software
development costs without affecting either flexibility or reliabilityThe
open-source nature of the code further means that any developer,
anywhere , can inspect the code tree, spit errors, and suggest possible
fixes, this produces a stable, robust product wherein bugs, once
discovered, are rapidly resolved – sometimes within a few hours of
discovery !.
Third-Party Application Support
One of PHP’s Strengths has historically been its support for a wide
range of different databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and
Microsoft SQL Server. PHP 5.3 Supports more than fifteen different
database engines, and it includes a common API for database access. XML
support makes it easy to read and write XML documents though they were
native PHP data structures, access XML node collections using Xpath, and
transform XML into other formats with XSLT style sheets.
Community Support
One of the nice things about a community-supported language like PHP
is the access it offers to the creativity and imagination of hundreds of
developers across the world.Within the PHP community, the fruits of
this creativity may be found in PEAR, the PHP Extension and Application
Repository and PECL, the PHP Extension Community Library, which contains
hundreds of ready-,made widgets and extensions that developers can use
to painlessly and new functionality to PHP.Using these widgets is often a
more time-and cost-efficient alternative to rolling your own code.
