what is meany by pre processor in php definition

phpprogrammer

Hi All,

PHP --> PHP:Hypertext Preprocessor

what is meany by Preprocessor

Why the name has given to it

Regards,
bvsureshbabu

Weedpacket

Because the name "Portable Home Pages" was outdated.

dream_scape

I think "Hypertext Preprocessor" is outdated too. The reach of PHP now stretches far beyond "preprocessing" linked textual documents.

At one time, PHP was thought of as just an "HTML-embedded scripting language" but the Group now defines it as a "widely-used general-purpose scripting language" which conflicts with that silly recursive acronym they came up.

I think it would be absolutely ok to have no meaning for "PHP" and just let it be "PHP". In fact, that's what I'm going to start doing. When people ask me what PHP stands for, I'm going to tell them, "It doesn't stand for anything. It's just PHP."

piersk

I think it's a pre-processor since it is run on the server before it sends the HTML back to the browser.

bpat1434

dream.scape: 0
piersk: 1
:p

I agree with Piersk... although a simple search on the forum would have turned up this result. Why another thread?

At one time, PHP was thought of as just an "HTML-embedded scripting language" but the Group now defines it as a "widely-used general-purpose scripting language" which conflicts with that silly recursive acronym they came up.

It technically still is. It's a web scripting/programming language. So, maybe not an HTML embedded scripting language, but perhaps a web-programming language.

But PHP still stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. Look at what happens when you make a server call to a PHP page. The PHP Parser looks at your script(s) and processes them. It generates the output (most often HTML) and spews out the page/info. So it processes the script and any input previous to any output. If it was a POSTprocessor, it wouldn't do any work until after the page rendered (which would make PHP useless) and if it did it asynchronously, you'd have a server-side equivilant of JavaScript.

dream_scape

look up the definition of "Hypertext". Basically it is a good term for how most of the web works [textual documents that are linked together], but PHP is not limited to the web anymore; hence why an acronym that restricts it to the web is outdated.

It is largely used as a web language, but that is not its boundaries anymore. Even the PHP Group have changed the PHP definition to remove parts that implied restriction to the web. go look it up yourself.

dream_scape

bpat1434 wrote:
So it processes the script and any input previous to any output.

That is how all languages work. My god man what are on about? Name a language that will give you output before receiving any input? That's not even logically or mechanically possible. Even the most advanced AI that seemingly gives output without any input still is operating and giving output based on some input it is given [or gets on its own]. Hell even we humans cannot give output without input. We respond to stimuli. But even just pure thought can't output without input.

If you really want to know why PHP stands for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor" it is because they had to come up with something else besides "Portable Home Pages" [as Weedpacket mentioned] and the best they could do was "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor". Hell they might was well have come up with "Program Helping Programmers" or something equally silly.

Weedpacket

But PHP doesn't process hypertext; in its traditional role, it takes HTML marked up with various templating directives (PHP code), and replaces the code with whatever the code evaluates to, leaving HTML (which then presumably eventually gets processed by some http client somewhere).

Same way that the C preprocessor preprocesses C source code to remove all the #define and #include preprocessor declarations and leave behind bare C to be processed by the C compiler.

bpat1434

Dream.scape: Don't double post.... there is an EDIT button for a reason 😉

That is how all languages work. My god man what are on about? Name a language that will give you output before receiving any input? That's not even logically or mechanically possible. Even the most advanced AI that seemingly gives output without any input still is operating and giving output based on some input it is given [or gets on its own]. Hell even we humans cannot give output without input. We respond to stimuli. But even just pure thought can't output without input.

But in the eyes of the web you have two types of served document: Static (HTML) or dynamic (DHTML/AJAX). PHP allows a static page a bit of leeway on serving dynamic content. It processes user input or whatever prior to serving the document. Hence why it's called a preprocessor.

I'm not on about anything either... just giving a slightly different view of what PHP is, or what its name implies.

If you really want to know why PHP stands for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor" it is because they had to come up with something else besides "Portable Home Pages" [as Weedpacket mentioned] and the best they could do was "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor". Hell they might was well have come up with "Program Helping Programmers" or something equally silly.

Wow... that's like the weirdest thing I've ever heard. There is a reason behind naming it what it is.

I really don't care
I'm out....

khendar

Well...reasons for the name change aside, Hypertext Preprocessor makes perfect sense. The hypertext is processed (or created) on the server side before output to the browser. As opposed to Javascript which can change the hypertext on the client side. Javascript could be considered a postprocessor (?)

Just out of interest...completely off topic. What's with the seeming obsession with Orwell amongst the senior members here ? (okay two people with sigs/profiles with references may not be an obsession, but I'm still curious if there's some deeper reasoning?)

Weedpacket

[Subarticle ungoodthinkwise malreported. Recdep upsup rectify.]

Jason_Batten

bpat1434 wrote:
I really don't care
I'm out....

*uses all of his strength to stay :quiet:

bpat1434

*uses all of his strength to stay

You know... since your name change... you've really become a d!ck....

And it's not just this thread... it's most threads..... why is that?

Jason_Batten

Well the above, I was going to make a really immature comment but didn't. I shouldn't have posted at all.

The other issues are likely to do with sexual frustration. I'm not a whore and don't have sex outside a relationship and since I am not in one at the moment... sigh

Lol, Happy?

dream_scape

I never said it doesn't process web pages. In fact I said that is still its biggest use. But that is not its only use anymore. Christ you've got like a brick wall around your head or something. That's about the 3rd time I've said that.

Sorry if you've only known PHP on the web, but it does have a life outside of the web.

bpat1434

Well the above, I was going to make a really immature comment but didn't. I shouldn't have posted at all.

The other issues are likely to do with sexual frustration. I'm not a whore and don't have sex outside a relationship and since I am not in one at the moment... sigh

Lol, Happy?

It wasn't to make me happy... i just wondered... that's all 🙂

[qutoe]I never said it doesn't process web pages. In fact I said that is still its biggest use. But that is not its only use anymore. Christ you've got like a brick wall around your head or something. That's about the 3rd time I've said that.

Sorry if you've only known PHP on the web, but it does have a life outside of the web.[/quote]
I never said PHP didn't have a life outside the web. What I'm merely saying (and possibly failing at it) is that PHP's main purpose was to serve up dynamic static pages. It was a web programming language. Today, yes it has furthered its reach into other areas like Desktop Environments, but its strongest foot is in the web. It will most likely always be in the web.

Technically, you only said that PHPs main thing was web dev once 😉 I just counted to make sure... I don't have a wall around my head... only my heart. But you have to realize, that just because a company expands its product, doesn't mean it changes its name. The goals, values, vision all can change, but the name is arbitrary.

Case in point: PHP is just PHP. It's a language, not a name. It stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor today, but tomorrow it could be anything. It's not meant to be spoken as the name, but as the acronym. Call it what you want.... the name means nothing. It's the content delivered from the language/program that matters.

Weedpacket

I wonder how many "personal computers" are being used as network servers?

We've established what a "preprocessor" is, which is what I'm guessing the OP was asking about. What the results of that preprocessing are used for is another matter entirely.