PHP short tags description from the official PHP documentation:
When PHP parses a file, it looks for opening and closing tags, which are <?php and ?> which tell PHP to start and stop interpreting the code between them.
PHP also allows for short open tag <? (which is discouraged since it is only available if enabled using theshort_open_tag php.ini configuration file directive, or if PHP was configured with the --enable-short-tags option).
To enable PHP short tags for a given website on your One Plan AEL hosting account, simply add the following line to your website's main .htaccess file:
php_value short_open_tag on