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<preface xml:id="preface" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook">
 <info>
  <titleabbrev>Preface</titleabbrev>
  <title>About this manual</title>
  <abstract>
   <simpara>
    <acronym>PHP</acronym>, which stands for <emphasis>PHP: Hypertext
    Preprocessor</emphasis>, is a widely-used open source general-purpose
    scripting language that is especially suited for web
    development and can be embedded into HTML. Its syntax draws
    upon C, Java, and Perl, and is easy to learn. The main goal of
    the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically
    generated web pages quickly, but you can do much more with PHP.
   </simpara>
  </abstract>
 </info>
 <para>
  This manual consists primarily of a <link linkend="funcref">
  function reference</link>, but also contains a 
  <link linkend="langref">language reference</link>, explanations
  of some of PHP's major <link linkend="features">features</link>, 
  and other <link linkend="appendices">supplemental</link> 
  information.
 </para>
 <simpara>
  This manual includes information covering the two most recent major
  releases of PHP (versions 7 and 8). Information about extensions
  that are no longer included with those versions of PHP and changes to
  functions in earlier versions is not included. Archives of older
  versions of the manual that document previous releases of PHP are
  available from the "More documentation" section on the
  <link xlink:href="&url.php.docs;">"Documentation" page of the PHP
  website</link>.
 </simpara>
 <para>
  You can download this manual in several formats at <link
  xlink:href="&url.php.doc.downloads;">&url.php.doc.downloads;</link>.
  More information about how this manual is developed can be found in the
  <link linkend="about">'About the manual'</link> appendix. If you are
  interested in the <link linkend="history">history of PHP</link>,
  visit the relevant appendix.
 </para>
  
 &contributors;
</preface>

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