Simple, quick question

kjonmyway

I uploaded a simple script to test, and was admonished by the server administrator who stated

"the <?php needs to be the FIRST line in the file for proper
operation on a Linux/Unix version of php when using the .php file
extension."

I have never heard of this or seen it before. So a page like this...

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>

<?php
print "Hello, World!";
?>

</body>
</html>

Is not correct??? This is what I was told it should be changed to:

<?php
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<?
print "Hello, World!";
?>
</body>
</html>

Could someone explain this to me???????

I really appreciate the help. Thanks for your time.

goldlikesnow

nonsense !!!
the first is perfect the last is not recommended

kjonmyway

The administrator is saying that the script is causing an error which showed up in the logs. I have just never heard of this and I also couldn't find anything on it when I conducted a Google search.

Houdini

The server administrator probably has some really crappy code full of blunders and if it works then he has probably had to spend quite some time debugging stuff that did not need to be debugged in the first place. When using a lot of html DO NOT echo it just drop out of PHP and return to HTML with a simple ?>, tell him to worry about keeping the server running and let you write code that works right now not after you are finished escaping all the quotes and all that mess when it is not necessary.
Furthermore there is a flaw in the second code right here

<?php//this starts the PHP interpretor so you get an error as soo as the <html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<?//use <?php not short tags
print "Hello, World!";
?>
</body>
</html>

This just shows more debugging that is not necessary over a simple program, tell your server administrator to look at this post! Notice the stuff in blue (that is PHP, it is wrong also due to staying in PHP) and then look after the PHP has been closed.

kakki

maybe this guy used php not as a module(mod_php)->builtin in apache
and he configured the apache, that it invokes a shell everytime a php-script is called.
if thats the case, you may use

<?php
?>
<html>
....
<?php
// your code here
?>
....
</html>

OR tell the guy, that hes wasting cpu-resources on the webserver and ask him,
if he would configure it right