I'm new to php and would love to find an article or advice on the limits of what PHP can do.
PHP is an extremely powerful server side scripting language like perl or asp. Its extensive built in function library gives it a good upper hand over other languages like it. The best place to look at its capabilities is the php manual index. It lists every type of function and feature that comes built in. You can also add external libraries through PEAR or PECL.
Could you build an online-banking system with it? Or is it not secure enough.
PHP could definately build a banking system. Most of the security there lies in using SSL or another browser encryption protocol to secure the data passed back and forth between the user and the server. Also, much of PHP's security relies on how aware the programmer is of preventing user based input to cause problems (sql injections, xss attacks)
What are people using it for?
Almost any type of web project you could imagine could be done in php. A quick look at the php section on HotScripts could give you a brief idea of what has been done with it.
What are the most common applications?
Could be, forums, guestbooks, blogs, ad management systems, user management systems, mailing lists, database interfaces, search engines, you name it.
Microsoft ASP.NET will certainly keep the enterprise users with asp due to the powerful .NET framework and its out of the box functionality. Many, however, dont have the $1000+ it costs for the visual studio suite used to aid in development. Also, while PHP runs on Windows, it also runs on unix based OS's which is a popular choice for server admins, whereas asp and asp.net arent built for OS's other than Windows (although there are softwares out there to run asp on unix).
Is there money to be made as a php developer? Who wants PHP developers?
While many small businesses are looking to go online or improve their websites to feature dynamic content and support interactivity with the user, PHP is a popular choice for website development. Over 20 million domains have PHP installed on them as of May 2005 (source)
Also, as Zend continues to develop PHP for enterprise applications many large companies are using it on their websites. Companies such as Yahoo, McAfee, Netgear and many others utilize php on their webpages at one place or another.
Also see the Zend Certification Page for more info on being a professional PHP developer.
Also - what other PHP forums do you like to post on? And is this the best? ;-)
This is really the only php forum I visit but there are many great ones out there, which I wont list here but you can find on http://www.php.net/links.php under "Complex PHP Related Sites"
I hope that answered some of your questions well and feel free to ask me to expand on any or to ask more new ones.
Good luck in your research.
