In this new article from DevShed.com, they provide a high-level introduction to PHP - what it is, where it came from, some of the sample features (of both PHP 4 and PHP 5), as well as some of the drawbacks for the language.

In this book excerpt, they start with the history of PHP, who created it, what it was for, etc. From there, they get a bit more detailed as to what features PHP 4 has versus PHP 5, and how those differences can help you and your code.

They round off the article with four "P"s - practicality, power, possibility, and price. PHP definitely fits all of those categories (to a fault, at times), and is only getting better from here.