I had a most interesting conversation with another person on Twitter. Yes, it sounds cheesy as I talk to quite a few people, but I prefer to keep the person anonymous as they have a good reputation and this is not a blog to maim anyone, more to be informative as I am not sure how the term was lost when ‘php script’ has been around for some time. Yes, WordPress is a blogging platform or a content management system. It uses php code and calls the database to cough up the information you put into your server, and even uses other scripting languages. I use WordPress like it is another religion and that is being serious despite the overtone while reading that it might be a hilarious thought.
I also produce php scripts. I have two here at the site that I coded myself, and in the past I did a simple blog php script in 2005 which I put on the backburner due to the fact I would rather promote WordPress as it is awesome. 🙂 That, and I fear my own would be like another CuteNews or Greymatter story where my script would not be secure enough.
Brief Point of View Change: However, if you were looking for something like WordPress and only knew you wanted a blog built with php, would you call it general a php script?
PHP script –
PHP is a scripting language originally designed for producing dynamic web pages.Defined by Wikipedia
Hotscripts.com (a site that has been around since 1998, only three years after PHP was originally created) lists WordPress under PHP/Scripts & Programs/Blog, which anyone can assume php script and php program are synonymous terms. Of course, anyone can call it php code as it seems to be an acceptable term these days, but when I download a program coded with php, it is also known as a php script. That is what my clients call it when they ask me.
At the end of this blog, I somehow feel I may have ranted a bit.
A lot of people think that WordPress is for people who are too lazy to deal with scripts, which is true, but it’s also a VERY useful tool.
It is not really being lazy… and it is not a ‘lot’ of people. Not sure where you got that when WP was b2 before 2005. If a lot of people were the case, it would be said about other blogging platforms/ content management systems…. and even other scripts use to make dynamic pages. Be careful in stating broad statements.
It is great if a person who does design can code a layout to incorporate a script like WordPress. On the other hand, it can be a crutch for those not wanting to properly learn XHTML, HTML, or even basic php.
You’re producing PHP script? Now that’s cool. I bet it’s a bit hard specially to me (or us) coz I’m new to that. And I’m not taking any related course to that.
WordPress is probably the most popular platform developed using PHP and that tells the power of PHP. In fact PHP is a easy to learn language and has huge community that supports it. A lot of open source frameworks are present for enriching and speeding up the development on PHP.