First off, we need to meet each other. I am Archimedes! xD I chose this name because I have a joy for mathematics and calculators and such. Archimedes is the man who discovered Pi(3.14159).

Things you should know before we start Lesson #1.
1.HTML
2.General scripting knowledge or what it actually does.

Alright, to the PHP lessons.

1.PHP stands for PHP; Hypertext Preprocessor.
2.PHP is used all around the world to build dynamic web pages and web sites.

Basic Syntax
1. All PHP scripts start with the<?php or <? tag. I'd use the <?php tag just to be a little bit more tidy, just my opinion though.

2. To write something in PHP, we use the 'echo' or 'print' statement, like so.

Output: Hello Astahost!

3. All PHP statements end with a semicolon(.(In italics in the first code snippet.)

Comments
4. To type comments in PHP we use // for one line comments or /* */ to make a comment block, like in this example. Comments DO NOT end with a semicolon.

Output: Hello Astahost!

Variables
5. At school, you use variables to substitute for numbers. Like, 4f + f = d. f=2, therefore 4*2+2=10. d=10.
6. In PHP, variables are 'saved' with the USD sign($).

Output: Hello

8. To type 2 variables after each other, you'd separate them with '. " " .', like so.

Output: Hello 4

Operators

Operator - Name - Ex. - Output
+ - Addition - x=2. 4 + x - 6
- - Subtraction - x=2. 4 - x - 2
* - Multiplication - x=2. 4 * x - 8
/ - Division - x=2. 4 / x - 2
For a list of all operators, click here.



That's it for our first lesson, see ya soon!


The Human Calculator,

Archimedes

This post has been edited by Archimedes: Jul 31 2008, 06:56 PM

Nice tuto, thanks.
Just a stupid question. You say "PHP stands for PHP; Hypertext Preprocessor."
How do you make php with Hypertext Preprocessor ? It should sound more like hpp ?

PHP = PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursive_acronym

This post has been edited by FirefoxRocks: Jul 28 2008, 07:03 PM

Now I see :

"Personnal Home Pages" is understandable for PHP, it's a nice historical explanation.