On this day, 20 years ago, PHP version 1.0 debuted to the world; It was a way of escaping the horror of writing your CGI programs in Perl, or worse, with your own bespoke set of C functions (that you wrongly referred to as a framework internally).
You probably wouldn't recognize code from that era:
Hey, you are using Netscape! Sorry, that record does not exist Welcome ! You have credits left in your account.
Nor would you recognize how to install or execute the interpreter.
This begs an important question ...
Will we recognize PHP twenty years hence ?
The answer depends on what you think PHP is ...The meaning of the (b)acronym PHP has changed over time, programmers tend to over think stuff.
When Suzuki or Honda engineers come up with a racing motorcycle, they call it the GSXR or CBR, these letters don't mean anything most of the time, they just sound cool.
PHP code has also changed over time, the meaning of the letters is as unimportant as the syntax.
If PHP is a syntax to you, perhaps you will not recognize it.
PHP is the communities that surround it, it is the programmers who work whenever they are able to better the language or extensions available for it, it is the many many workshops dependant on it for an income, the would-or-will-be 13 year olds trying to figure out just how arrays work tonight.
For as long as there is a thing we recognize as the internet, there will be all the things that make up PHP, I look forward to seeing what the next 20 years brings.
