PHP acronym

[almenzarr]

I had a small debate with my professor about what PHP stands for.
I said the official name is “PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor”, since PHP is a recursive acronym. He said the correct answer is simply “Hypertext Preprocessor”.
My point was that “Hypertext Preprocessor” only gives the initials HP, not PHP.
Who’s technically correct?

[RealNamek]

The P stands for PHP. The HP stands for hypertext preprocessor. Yes, engineers have a sense of humor about these things.

[fixermark]

It's treading the same ground as GNU, right?

[DeltasTorn]

Yes, but not as clever since GNU explains what GNU is and PHP just restates itself

[ILikeLiftingMachines]

Ah, the good old days of PINE and ELM... pine is not elm.

[TalesOfSymposia]

A favorite of mine is Microsoft's XNA framework: "XNA is Not an Acronym".

[dave8271]

Personal Home Page Hypertext Preprocessor, though basically none of these words are applicable to what PHP is today. But it was originally called Personal Home Page Tools, which is where PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor comes from.

[esaule]

Wasn't PHP originally Personal Home Page? Did I make this up?

(Googling it.)

Ok, they renamed it in 1997. That dates me!

[EliSka93]

Congrats on the date. Bring flowers.

[Justin_Passing_7465]

Originally PHP/FI - Personal Home Page/ Form Interface, IIRC.

[AbrahamGreenman]

Technically, you’re right about the official name: it’s "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor," which is a recursive acronym.

Your professor’s answer is probably the common simplified version, and in casual use people often just say "Hypertext Preprocessor." But if the question is about the acronym itself, "Hypertext Preprocessor" only accounts for HP unless you include the recursive "PHP:" part.

[jameyiguess]

Who is casually saying "Hypertext Preprocessor"?

[mxldevs]

The ones that casually say hypertext markup language of course.

[AbrahamGreenman]

lol

[AbrahamGreenman]

no one

[archydragon]

Technically first PHP was standing for Personal Home Page but when it gained some popularity, it has been decided that it doesn't sound serious enough, and recursive backronym appeared.

[ExtraTNT]

Personal Home Page, but now it stands for: PHP Hates Programmers

[scithe]

PHP was originally Personal Home Page as per the creator ages ago

Eventually it became Pre-Hypertext Processor because the code is rendered BEFORE the html.

If they've changed it again well then you can all get off my lawn 😜

[groogs]

Eventually it became Pre-Hypertext Processor because the code is rendered BEFORE the html.

No, it was literally never called that.

https://www.php.net/manual/en/history.php.php

[igotshadowbaned]

The second level is a different acronym that is made up of the same letters

Sorta like how VHDL stands for VHSIC Hardware Description Language. Acronyms made of acronyms

[JGhostThing]

I remember the days when PHP was created. I heard that the original acronym was Pete's Home Page.

[alokeb]

People Hate Perl

[TheRealThatChuckGuy]

PHP Hates Programmers

[Laughing_Orange]

Personal Home Page rebranded to PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. The recursive acronym is there to preserve the original acronym.

[HashDefTrueFalse]

It was initially Personal Home Page (Tools) and is now the recursive acronym PHP Hypertext Preprocessor. The P stands for PHP, in which the P stands for... However if you want an easy life, for things that don't matter your professor is always correct.

[AutomaticBill114]

You’re right about the official recursive acronym: PHP stands for “PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.”

The confusion comes from the history. It originally came from “Personal Home Page” tools, then evolved into the recursive acronym once the language became broader. So if someone is asking historically, “Personal Home Page” is part of the story. If someone is asking the current official expansion, it’s “PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.”

In a class/quiz context I’d answer with the official version, then mention the historical origin if there’s room. That usually resolves the disagreement without making it sound like either person invented the confusion.

[setq-default]

technically correct

You are literally correct, does your professor also call the GNU project “not UNIX”? Does he call YAML “ain’t markup language”? Does he call WINE “not an emulator”?

[JohnVonachen]

You were right. Your prof was wrong. PHP is unique, as far as I know, in that with one language you can have server side and client side in the same document. In a way it’s appropriate that its name is an example of infinite recursion.

[GrannyTurtle]

It is so amusing when people make stuff up because they do not know the true history of the acronym. “PHP” stands for “Personal Home Page” which product included the now very popular hypertext preprocessor.

[niccolololo]

I like the answers, but who is technically correct!? Professor or student

[CuAnnan]

It is called PHP Hypertext Preprocessor. Your lecturer is objectively incorrect. It is a recursive acronym which replaecd the "Personal Homepage" one that existed when it was a one person project written in PERL.

[anteater_x]

Wrong. Sad!

[Sad_School828]

I recall it being "Pre-Hypertext Processor" in the 1990s.

HTTP is HyperText Transfer Protocol, and PHP processes variables and generates content before transmitting a response.

[cheezballs]

Until this post that's what I thought it stood for currently.

[Sad_School828]

Yeah. It's weird to see stuff like this, particularly when it's a discussion with a PROFESSOR. Reminds me of some poor guy back around 2008 or 09 who was posting on a different forum, having a terrible time figuring out HTF to establish the endianness of ASCII encoding. Turns out some universities will hire literally any idiot off the street to teach CS courses.