Advantages:

PHP is accessible
** It's available for free
It's available with documentation in many languages
There are many support groups, forums, and teams supporting PHP
There is a wealth of online information regarding PHP
It's quick to develop in PHP
** A basic PHP script can be created without a firm understanding of programming principals, compilation, and other currently important programming concepts
PHP is loosely typed, which makes basic scripts much faster to develop with less attention to design
Programmers of Java, PERL, BASIC, and other popular languages can find many parallels to ease transition to PHP
PHP is flexible. Use OOP or not. Use naming convention(s) or not
It runs on many different operating systems
It can be optimized, even "compiled" for performance closer to that of more established compiled languages


Disadvantages:

Out of the box, PHP tends to execute more slowly than assembly, C, and other compiled languages
PHP is loosely typed. For developers of all skill levels, this allows room for unexpected behavior due to programmer error that many other languages might not permit. [Of course, few if any languages can protect from developer error!]
There are many ways to do one thing, and many cases where a function has ambiguous handling due to legacy support or PHP development history.



Keywords: PHP , languages, online, information,PHP script , programming principals, compilation,design,Programmers , Java, PERL, BASIC,OOP ,PHP development history