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<h2 class="chapter">1 Introduction</h2>
<p><a name="index-C-mode-1"></a><a name="index-features-2"></a><a name="index-PEAR-3"></a><a name="index-PHP-versions-4"></a><a name="index-syntax-highlighting-5"></a><a name="index-version_002c-PHP-6"></a>PHP mode is a major mode for editing PHP source code in
Emacs. As an extension of Emacs's C mode, it inherits all C
mode's navigation and editing functionality. Syntax
elements of PHP source code is colored according to the
grammar of PHP versions 3, 4 and 5. By default, the indent
rules follow the PHP PEAR coding guidelines. Additional
aids for developing in PHP include documentation search of
the PHP manual, code completion and a class browser.
<p><a name="index-version_002c-PHP-mode-7"></a><a name="index-php_002dmode_002dversion-8"></a><a name="index-M_002dx-php_002dmode_002dversion-9"></a>To find out what version of PHP mode you have installed run
<kbd>M-x php-mode-version</kbd>.
<p>PHP mode was first released in 1999 and was written by
Turadg Aleahmad. At the time of PHP mode's initial release,
version 2 of PHP (PHP/FI) was only 2 years old and the
release of PHP 3 had happened the year before. In May of
2000, PHP 4 was released. Subsequent versions of PHP mode
scurried to support the quickly evolving syntax of this
emerging programming language.
<p>In 2001, PHP mode became a SourceForge project and version
1.0 was released later that year. Further refinements of
the Emacs library included improvements to the syntax
coloring rules, portability between XEmacs and GNU Emacs,
integration of various development tools available in
various Emacsen.
<p>PHP mode's support for PHP 5 first appeared in 2004, the
same year PHP 5 was released. 2004 was the last year
Aleahmad made a release. In 2005, Lennart Borgman combined
a forked version of PHP mode with his “new XML mode for
Emacs” (nXhtml). The stalled development of PHP resulted
in people sharing various patches and improvements to PHP
mode over the Internet.
<p>The 1.4 release in 2008 represented a renewed commitment to
the Emacs Lisp library with the addition of considerable
updates and improvements – the first in over 2 years.
<!-- In 2007, Aaron S. Hawley offered to update and maintain -->
<!-- PHP mode. PHP mode's files were moved from CVS to a -->
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<p>This manual describes PHP mode for practiced Emacs users
especially those who have read or can refer to the Emacs
manual. The reader should already know how to program in
PHP, although one could easily learn how to program PHP
using PHP mode and Emacs. There are no explanations of PHP
programming in this manual.
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