Celebrating 30 Years of PHP: Fun Facts About the Language Behind Drupal

Staff Reporter

ImageX celebrated PHP’s 30th anniversary on June 8 with a mix of history, trivia, and Drupal-centric insights. The post by Nadiia Nykolaichuk of ImageX covers PHP's origins as a personal project by Rasmus Lerdorf and its evolution into a core web technology. It emphasizes PHP’s enduring role in Drupal, especially since Drupal 8 adopted the Symfony framework and modern object-oriented practices.

The article stands out for clearly explaining PHP concepts to non-technical readers while still offering nuggets for developers. Notable facts include PHP's recursive acronym, its plush ElePHPant mascot, and performance gains—like a 55% speed boost for Drupal 10 under PHP 8.3. It also underscores PHP’s ubiquity, flexibility, and commitment to security.

However, much of the content is light and anecdotal. While entertaining, it lacks technical depth or new information for seasoned developers. This is best read as a celebratory overview, not a technical deep dive.

Source Reference

Title

Happy 30th Birthday, PHP! Fun Facts about the Language That Powers Drupal (and More)

Byline

Nadiia Nykolaichuk

Date of Publication

13 June 2025

Organization

ImageX

PHP

Drupal

Web Development

Open Source

Symfony

Web security

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