Is it possible to use PHP short tags in modern projects?

Hello everyone! I'm a beginner PHP developer writing my first site in pure PHP. I saw in old tutorials that you can use short tags: `\n```\n\nInstead of:\n\n```php\n\n```\n\nThis looks very convenient and reduces code. But I noticed that on some hosting providers my code with short tags doesn't work and throws an error. I also heard that this is considered bad practice, but I don't understand why — since the code becomes shorter and cleaner.\n\nPlease advise:\n1. Why might short tags not work?\n2. Is it really better not to use them in modern projects?\n3. Are there any exceptions when short tags are acceptable?\n\nThanks in advance for your help!