Again, PHP made it better and easier but you aren&#x27;t going to convince me that my direct experience didn&#x27;t exist simply by repeating the same assertion.<p>Before PHP became widespread in the very late 90s there were many options for dynamic apps. I worked with ISPs which offered CGI or SSI even on cheap &#x2F; free plans. Sure, it was ugly but a ton of people got what they needed done by going over to Matt&#x27;s Script Archive and finding something they could hammer into shape. Before antique  PHP apps, the security cliché was formmail.pl &amp; a slew of long-forgotten guestbook &#x2F; forum scripts.<p>I&#x27;m not saying that PHP didn&#x27;t help considerably, only that it was very far from first. I remember having to make the case for using PHP 2 or 3 instead of many of those alternatives and it was based on cost and convenience, not the ability to do anything new.