CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpwindowsbinaryxamppsoftware-distribution
PHPLover
PHPLover

Reputation: 12957

What does actually mean by 'PHP binary distributions for Windows'? How it is different from PHP source code?

I come across following statement from PHP Manual

PHP source code and binary distributions for Windows can be found at » http://www.php.net/downloads.php. We recommend you to choose a » mirror nearest to you for downloading the distributions.

This statement has created following doubts in my mind :

  1. What does actually mean by 'PHP binary distributions for Windows'?
  2. Why there are no such 'PHP binary distributions' for other operating systems like Linux, Mac OS X, RISC OS, and others?
  3. I've installed PHP 7.2.3 on my machine running on Windows 10 operating system with the latest copy of XAMPP package then have I installed the 'PHP binary distributions for Windows'?
  4. What's the use/need/necessity/benefit/advantage of the 'PHP binary distributions for Windows'?
  5. Are the 'PHP binary distributions for Windows' available for download only on official PHP website?
  6. How the 'PHP binary distributions for Windows' is different from PHP source code with reference to the above statement from PHP Manual?

Someone please clear all of my above doubts in an easy to understand language.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 435

Answers (1)

w01k3
w01k3

Reputation: 103

  1. A binary distribution is an executable program for an operating system like Windows. Different operating systems and different prozessors need different approaches to run programs. Thus there are different distributions, that are generated differently.
  2. see 1.
  3. It depends on the xampp version, but yes the latest xampp does have version 7.2.3 of php (you don't need to install it again if as long as you are working in the xampp environment)
  4. You need it to develop php code on you local machine. There are other ways, which might be a bit more complex for your level of knowledge. The binaries work mostly out of the box, more or less.
  5. There are others, like in the xampp package, but the php website is generally the best source for it.
  6. Source code is the program code from which the binaries are build. You can not use it as is.

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions