[Snake-Eyes]

I've been searching everywhere and can't find an answer to three questions:

1) What are MySQL and PostgreSQL for?

2) What's the difference between MySQL and PostgreSQL?

3) What is PHP for?

All help is highly appreciated. I've been looking into more advanced website design, and a lot of sites i've been to say i should also read up on MySQL/PostgreSQL and some even say PHP, but i have no idea what any of it does or is.

[m3trj]

1. MySQL and PostgreSQL are database servers.

2. Dunno but MySQL seems more popular.

3. PHP is a programming language for writing dynamic websites.

[Snake-Eyes]

Is learning MySQL/PostgreSQL essential when building a website?

Also, what defines "dynamic?" To me, a dynamic website can mean one that has a sort of "news update" weekly (or whatever interval), and it can mean one that changes it's complete layout every [insert interval].

[hillbillybob]

Also, what defines "dynamic?" To me, a dynamic website can mean one that has a sort of "news update" weekly (or whatever interval), and it can mean one that changes it's complete layout every [insert interval].

Close...A dynamic website is one that changes it's content for any given situation. Different user, different events, different time, different mouse clicks even.

2) What's the difference between MySQL and PostgreSQL?
Dunno but MySQL seems more popular.

MySQL is more robust for large scale and enterprise size Database Servers. Both are open source, but MySQL tends to be part of the LAMP software package,
Linux
Apache
MySQL
Perl/PHP/Python
Though there are other variations, but it mainly competes with J2EE and MS .NET

PHP is actually defined as a scripting tool. It can be used similar to Adobe's ColdFusion, where a page is created with php tags, and the php software on the server takes those tags and followes the instructions in them