The reason PHP is so popular has a lot to do with the ease at which it can be learnt.

It is extremely easy to get started with PHP, within hours I had designed an online calculator and connected to a database called MYSQL. The critics however will say that the Language has no structure and that coders new to php will slip into bad habits because they start out by mixing PHP with HTML which is not good practice . Well I cannot argue with the critics. It is true that PHP has no default structure you can become a very lazy coder mixing countless HTML pages with PHP but before long you will find that this unstructured programming approach is an absolute nightmare when you try to debug or change the script, so a junior programmer will inevitably come to a grinding halt with his coding and start looking for a more organised approach that separates the PHP from the HTML and greatly improves debugging. By this time a coder will have learnt some valuable lessons about bad scripting practice that he/she wouldn’t have been able to if the structure was strict. In my opinion it is important to go through this stage. Their are many “design patterns“  that greatly improve the lazy structure of PHP and a massive user base community to tap into.

So to summarize PHP has a lot to offer anyone looking for a scripting language with a gradual learning curve and all the functionality of the other more complicated server side languages should definitely give it a try.

Mark Cunningham
http://www.articlesbase.com/web-design-articles/php-has-to-be-the-easiest-server-side-language-in-the-world-715983.html