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From the PHP documentation for resource type
A resource is a special variable, holding a reference to an external
resource.
A statement I have ignored for years. mysql_*, curl_* etc.
Why are they called external? Is it because they are add-on libraries? What of fopen()?
According to this manual page on resource types
fopen()is also included in the list of external resources and is filed under stream.I believe they are called external because they are just that, a resource that has come from outside the core of PHP, such as a database, a file or an ftp connection. Rather than an internal resource like an array, a string or a integer.