The document provides instructions for installing PHP, Apache web server, and MySQL database on Linux/Unix systems to set up a development environment for PHP web applications. It describes downloading and compiling the latest versions of PHP and Apache source code, configuring PHP to work with Apache as a module, and setting the PHP configuration file and document root directory. This allows PHP code to be embedded in HTML files and executed by the Apache web server to create dynamic web pages that can also interface with the MySQL database.