<? vs <?PHP

[Paul Lautman]

I often see the former starting delimiter rather than the latter. Is there
some rule about where the former can be used?

[Scott]

On Mon, 2006-04-17 at 00:13 +0100, Paul Lautman wrote:

I often see the former starting delimiter rather than the latter. Is there
some rule about where the former can be used?

There is a setting in your php.ini file called short_open_tags. If it
is enabled, you can use <? instead of <?php. However, because xml also
uses the short tag <?, and for compatibility with different servers, it
is generally recommended that you use the longer <?php tag.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.cor...short-open-tag

Scott

[CJ Llewellyn]

On Mon, 17 Apr 2006 00:13:32 +0100, Paul Lautman wrote:

I often see the former starting delimiter rather than the latter. Is there
some rule about where the former can be used?

<? is a shortened version of <?php for programmers too lazy to type <?php.
As <? is configurable in the php.ini file and can be turned off, so it's
availablity on any given web server is not guarentied. So use it at your
peril.

[Paul Lautman]

Paul Lautman wrote:

I often see the former starting delimiter rather than the latter. Is
there some rule about where the former can be used?

Thanks CJ & Scott

[Andy Jeffries]

On Mon, 17 Apr 2006 00:13:32 +0100, Paul Lautman wrote:

I often see the former starting delimiter rather than the latter. Is there
some rule about where the former can be used?

While I agree with CJ and Scott, there is a useful construct that can be
used with short tags (<?) and if your code is running on a server you
control (as can be the case for a lot of web developers, run clients code
on servers you control) it can make for easier to read code:

<?=$foo?>

is equivalent to:

<?php echo $foo ?>

Anyway, just thought I'd add that in.

Cheers,
Andy

--
Andy Jeffries MBCS CITP ZCE | gPHPEdit Lead Developer
http://www.gphpedit.org | PHP editor for Gnome 2
http://www.andyjeffries.co.uk | Personal site and photos

[Locu]

I have heard also that in PHP version 6 the <? will no longer be
listened for. Which disappoints me becuase I used to always use
<?=$var?> because it's nice shorthand for the alternative.