what does php stand for?

The initialize "PHP" is a recursive one, standing for PHP Hypertext Processor. If you ever studied computer science, you should be able to detect the humor. PHP is referred to as a hypertext processor by way of the fact that PHP was designed to process text in the hypertext markup language (HTML) and transmit it using the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). By being specialized as a web applications development tool, and being completely free, it has since come to have a strong and loyal following within the web development community.