title: <? or <?php --- is there any difference?
body: <blockquote>
    <p><strong>Possible Duplicates:</strong><br>
    <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/200640/are-php-short-tags-acceptable-to-use">Are PHP short tags acceptable to use?</a><br>
    <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3019696/what-does-mean-when-seen-in-php">What does &ldquo;&lt;?=&rdquo; mean when seen in PHP</a>  </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  
  
  <p>is there any difference in using <code>&lt;? ?&gt;</code> to signify a php block, or using <code>&lt;?php ?&gt;</code> ?</p>
  
  <p>if there is not, why would anyone use <code>&lt;?php</code> ?</p>
  
  <p>figure the file extension of .php would give plenty of info about what type of code you are looking at.</p>