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1.5. Hardware and Software Requirements

The document provides an overview of the hardware and software requirements for PHP as well as how PHP works with web servers. It states that PHP can be adapted to new environments and works on a variety of operating systems including Windows, Linux, and Solaris. The hardware requirements are not significantly different than for regular HTML sites, though more resources are needed for PHP powered sites. PHP will run on CPUs from 100MHz Pentiums up and supports various hardware architectures like Intel, PowerPC, and Sparc.

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Ishmeet Singh
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199 views4 pages

1.5. Hardware and Software Requirements

The document provides an overview of the hardware and software requirements for PHP as well as how PHP works with web servers. It states that PHP can be adapted to new environments and works on a variety of operating systems including Windows, Linux, and Solaris. The hardware requirements are not significantly different than for regular HTML sites, though more resources are needed for PHP powered sites. PHP will run on CPUs from 100MHz Pentiums up and supports various hardware architectures like Intel, PowerPC, and Sparc.

Uploaded by

Ishmeet Singh
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1.5.

Hardware and Software Requirements


One great advantage of Open Source software is that it provides the opportunity for adaptation to new environments. This is true of PHP. Although originally intended as a module for the Apache Web server, PHP has since abstracted its Web server interface. The new abstraction layer allowed an ISAPI module to be written, which allows it to work equally well with Microsoft's Internet Information Server. With regard to hardware requirements, I have personally witnessed PHP running on 100-MHz Pentium machines running Slackware Linux and Windows NT respectively. Performance was fine for use as a personal development environment. That the engines for PHP 3 and 4 were developed on Intel 486 CPUs must have helped. A site expected to receive thousands of requests a day would need faster hardware, of course. Although more resources are needed when comparing a PHP-powered site to a flat HTML site, the requirements are not dramatically different. Despite my example, you are not limited to Intel hardware. PHP works equally well on PowerPC, Sparc, and other 32-bit or better CPUs. When choosing an operating system, you have the general choice between Windows and a UNIX-like OS. PHP will run on older Windows operating systems, although these operating systems aren't suited for high-traffic Web servers. It will also run on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. For UNIX operating systems, PHP works well with Linux and Solaris as well as others. If you have chosen a PPC-based system, such as a Macintosh, you may choose LinuxPPC, a version of Linux. Chad Cunningham contributed patches for compiling PHP in Apple's OS X. There's even support of IBM's OS/2 and Novell Netware.

1.1. The Origins of PHP


Wonderful things come from singular inspiration. PHP began life as a simple way to track visitors to Rasmus Lerdorf's resume. It also could embed SQL queries in Web pages. But as often happens on the Web, admirers quickly asked for their own copies. As a proponent of the Internet's ethic of sharing,

and as a generally agreeable person, Rasmus unleashed upon an unsuspecting Web his Personal Home Page Tools version 1.0. Unleashed upon himself may be more accurate. PHP became very popular. A consequence was a flood of suggestions. PHP 1.0 filtered input, replacing simple commands for HTML. As its popularity grew, people wondered if it couldn't do more. Loops, conditionals, rich data structuresall the conveniences of modern structured programming seemed like a next logical step. Rasmus studied language parsers, read about YACC and GNU Bison, and created PHP 2, otherwise known as PHP/FI.

1.4. How PHP Works with the Web Server


The normal process a Web server goes through to deliver a page to a browser is as follows. It all begins when a browser makes a request for a Web page. Based on the URL, the browser resolves the address of the Web server, identifies the page it would like, and gives any other information the Web server may need. Some of this information is about the browser itself, like its name (Mozilla), its version (4.08), or the operating system (Linux). Other information given the Web server could include text the user typed into form fields. If the request is for an HTML file, the Web server will simply find the file, tell the browser to expect some HTML text, and then send the contents of the file. The browser gets the contents and begins rendering the page based on the HTML code. If you have been programming HTML for any length of time, this will be clear to you.

1.2. PHP Is Better Than Its Alternatives


In previous years, skeptics may have asked, Why should I learn PHP? Today, PHP's popularity is enough to generate interest in learning it. PHP is a

standard feature offered by most Web hosting companies. However, it is interesting to understand why so many people choose PHP over alternatives. Perl adapted well to being a CGI solution. Microsoft provides its Active Server Pages with Internet Information Server. Middleware, like Macromedia's Cold Fusion, is yet another solution. ServerWatch.com lists hundreds of Web technologies, some costing tens of thousands of dollars. Why should you choose PHP over any of these alternatives?

1.3. Interfaces to External Systems


Originally, PHP was famous for interfacing with many different database systems, but it also has support for other external systems. Support comes in the form of modules called extensions. They either compile directly into PHP or are loaded dynamically. New extensions are added to the PHP project regularly. The extensions expose groups of functions for using these external systems. As mentioned, some of these are databases. PHP offers functions for talking natively with most popular database systems, and it provides access to ODBC drivers. Other extensions give you the ability to send messages using a particular network protocol, such as LDAP or IMAP. These functions are described in detail in Part II. Because PHP developers are enthusiastic and industrious, you will undoubtedly find more extensions have been added since I wrote this. Pspell is a system for checking spelling. An extension provides support for numbers of arbitrary precision. There is an extension for dealing with various calendar systems. An extension provides support for DBM-style databases. You can use the SNMP, IMAP, and LDAP protocols. The Interbase and Informix databases are supported natively, as are mSQL, MySQL, MS SQL, Sybase, Oracle, and PostgreSQL. You can also parse XML or create WDDX packets. You can even extract meta information about your digital pictures using the EXIF extension. At the time of writing, automated coffee making is not yet supported.

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