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I want to learn how to use PHP and have read a few articles about it. I noticed that to use it the computer that it is being installed with must have some type of server software installed such as IIS. Is there a way to practice the commands without having to setup a web server?

PHP does come in script form, like Perl. I can run it from the command line (interactively with the -a switch) on my Linux box. In Windows you'll need to add the PHP directory to your path.

I don't know how much good it will do for you though. Since PHP is concentrated on making HTML, I think it'll lose something by itself.

You can use apache as a webserver. Php then can be run as either a stand alone executable or as a module in apache. Apache is available in Win95,98,NT.

In order to learn PHP, you will need a webserver. But, the webserver does not have to be made public and just runs in the background on your computer.

I learned a lot of PHP by installing Apache and PHP4 on my laptop. Worked great! In fact, I still use it to trouble shoot scripts when I don't have FTP access (i.e. when on the road). Best of luck