debugging and getting output from php code embedded in html

I am extremely green and just starting my php journey. how do i display output information in an HTML file for debugging purposes? currently, it seems all my "echo" commands in the html file do not display when i browse the file. where are these echo commands going? are they going to the great bit bucket in the sky??? how do i get them to display?? am i missing something really basic here? here is the code fragment ----> $conn = pg_Connect("host=localhost user=mcsauto dbname=mcsauto"); if (!$conn) { echo "Error !!!.\n"; echo "No Error !!!.\n" } ; in either case...success or failure...shouldn't i be getting a message when i browse the file? thank you for your patience....this list is really great!!! Jim Purvins