What are the necessary tools and software required to start programming in PHP?

To start programming in PHP, you will need a text editor to write your code, a web server to run your PHP scripts, and a web browser to view the output. You can use tools like Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text, or Notepad++ as text editors. For the web server, you can use Apache, Nginx, or XAMPP. Lastly, you will need a browser like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Safari to test and view your PHP scripts.

```php
<?php
// Your PHP code goes here
?>