An index list of articles

Hi everyone – if anyone has posted the solution to this one elsewhere than a link to that would be great – I’ve had a good look round by terminology of “index” can mean at least three things (root page/front page/contents page) – so it’s been tough to find what I’m looking for.

I’d like to create a wordpress page which has a bit of code in it

Q1) Can I put PHP code into wordpress pages/post?

This code – which I assume would be php would generate a list of all the sites articles arranged by month, with linksto each. I’ve seen some temeplates do this with their sidebars but never to a single page.

Q2) Is this possible with doing any backend stuff?

Copy pastig some code into a page is one thing but hacking away at the template files is something I’d rather avoid.

Q3) Is this the sort of thing i should be looking in the plugs for?

Q4) Is the loop involved?

big thanks

conradslater.com/blog