Meglio usare <?php e non <?

Non sono sicuro di avere capito al problema. Comunque.

File : test9017.php
Codice PHP:
<?php 
if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {
 
$action $_POST['submit'];
 if (
$action == "Salva") {
   
file_put_contents("pippo.txt",$_POST['meta']);
  
$meta_file $_POST['meta'];
 } else {
   
$meta_file file_get_contents("pippo.txt");
 }
} else {
 
$meta_file "";

 
?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled</title>
</head>
<body>
<form action="test9017.php" method="post" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded">
    <p><strong>Meta:</strong></p>
    <textarea  rows="4" cols="95" name="meta" type="text" style="background-color:#dff"><?php echo htmlspecialchars("$meta_file"?></textarea>
  <br/>
    <input type="submit" id="SubmitForm1" class="reddish" name="submit" value="Carica" />
  <input type="submit" id="SubmitForm2" class="reddish" name="submit" value="Salva" />
    </form> 
</body>
</html>