Here&#39;s the information [according to the official documentation][1]:

&gt; There are four different pairs of
&gt; opening and closing tags which can be
&gt; used in PHP. Two of those, `&lt;?php ?&gt;`
&gt; and `&lt;script language=&quot;php&quot;&gt; &lt;/script&gt;`,
&gt; are always available. The other two
&gt; are short tags and ASP style tags, and
&gt; can be turned on and off from the
&gt; php.ini configuration file. As such,
&gt; while some people find short tags and
&gt; ASP style tags convenient, they are
&gt; less portable, and **generally not
&gt; recommended**.

In my experience most servers *do* have short tags enabled. Typing

    &lt;?=

is far more convenient than typing

    &lt;?php echo 

The programmers convenience is an important factor, so **why** are they not recommended?

  [1]: http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.php


Are PHP short tags acceptable to use?

I have a web application on a Linux server which starts with `&lt;?`

I needed to copy this application to a windows environment and everything is working fine except that an SQL statement is being rendered differently. I don&#39;t know if this has to do with the script beginning with `&lt;?php` instead of `&lt;?` because I don&#39;t know from where to enable the `&lt;?` from the `PHP.ini` so I changed it to `&lt;?php`

I know that these 2 statements are supposed to mean the same but I need to test it with `&lt;?` in order to ensure that the application is exactly the same. This way I can eliminate another possibility.

Thanks

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Are PHP short tags acceptable to use?

How to enable PHP short tags?