PHP is a widely-used Open Source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. Its syntax draws upon C, Java, and Perl, and is easy to learn.

PHP runs on many different platforms and can be used as a standalone executable or as a module under a variety of Web servers. It has excellent support for databases, XML, LDAP, IMAP, Java, various Internet protocols, and general data manipulation, and is extensible via its powerful API.

PHP project is actively developed and supported by a talented and energetic international team. Numerous Open Source and commercial PHP-based application packages are available.

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· The PHP development team would like to announce the immediate availability of PHP 5.2.8. This release addresses a regression introduced by 5.2.7 inregard to the magic_quotes functionality, that was broken by an incorrect fix to the filter extension. All users who have upgraded to 5.2.7 are encouraged to upgrade to this release, alternatively you can apply a work-around for the bug by changing "filter.default_flags=0" in php.ini.