To post pieces of code, surround them with <code>...</code> tags. For PHP code, you can use <?php ... ?>, which will also colour it based on syntax.
Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
Lines and paragraphs are automatically recognized. The <br /> line break, <p> paragraph and </p> close paragraph tags are inserted automatically. If paragraphs are not recognized simply add a couple blank lines.
If you include a textual smiley in your post (see chart below), it will be replaced by a graphical smiley.