OR, PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. PRE- meaning BEFORE. Meaning it's designed to handle scripting on html pages before they out processed by the browser. It originally mean Personal Home Pages. It's not meant to imitate a desktop application, in which you could press a button and have a function run. In PHP, in order to run new code, you have to load a new page. This is basic stuff. AJAX and CURL help provide ways to imitate a desktop app, like what you want. Complaining about having to know about html is like complaining about having to know how to use a pencil when you just want to write a little note! PHP is designed to be used IN html pages and with databases. You don't have to use MySQL with PHP, but it makes it faster and easier than using flatfiles for everything you want to persist. Other languages interact with files and dbs as well, it's called "Persistent Storage". ANYWAY, AJAX is NOT hard. The mootools framework uses one freaking line of JS in order to do what you want. Chillax.