While reading this board, I see that people are saying you need to recompile the server for this or that. I am not that sophisticated yet. I am doing HTML, installing scripts, doing Telnet, about to buy a dedicated server, and am studying up to do more. But what is recompiling?
Thanks,
B

It is best explained by discussing the difference between compiled and interpreted computer languages.

PHP is an interpreted language. The source code is processed into a machine readable form and execute as one step. Other interpreted languages include Perl, Unix Shell Scripts, and tcl. Many web-based programs are written in interpreted languages. This allows end-users to modify the program to fit their needs.

A language like C, C++, Visual Basic, or Java is a compiled language. The source code must be translated into a machine readable format as a separate step. This process is called compilation, and it must be performed before the source code can actually be executed as a program. Programs like Microsoft Office, Linux, device drivers, etc, must be written in a compiled language to be effective. A compiled program cannot be modified by the end-user as it is not in a format that a human can read.

The open source community ships software in uncompiled format so that the end-user can tailor the software to their needs and then compile it into machine-readable format. Different versions of UNIX may need to compile the code differently, so there is a real value to having the source code in the UNIX world.

Jim