In Golgota

Damn, I didn't really have the time to look at this version yet, but reading now the new features list, it looks like the most interesting PHP version ever.

I mean closures and lambda functions in PHP, I have been waiting for this for too long. Fileinfo, a very useful extension that I always had to compile is now bundled. Changes to the ternary operator ?:, hehe. A new MySQL driver which should eat less RAM ! ext/intl looks amazing too.

Well, this looks really great, I still have to test this (especially the anonymous functions) and see if it is as cool as it sounds.
Namespaces look weird with their antislash syntax tho... :/

Update : actually, given the long new features list, I start to wonder why they didn't call this version PHP6 ?

Lukas @ 06.05.2009 14:04 CEST
Mostly because we advertised PHP6 as the unicode release for so long. Plus PHP 5.3 is as compatible with PHP 5.2 as PHP 5.2 was to 5.1. Meaning there are some minor incompatibilities, but overall the migration should be fairly smooth. IMHO major version numbers should be less about the scope of feature additions but more about how large the step it is to migrate to.

BTW: My favorite feature (traits) did not make it in :(

Richard Heyes @ 06.05.2009 14:15 CEST
> I start to wonder why they didn't call this version PHP6 ?

I've heard that PHP6 will include the ground breaking function:

getCoffee()

James Logsdon @ 06.05.2009 14:37 CEST
It's also damn fast.

Zippy @ 06.05.2009 16:21 CEST
Traits are also one of the features I am sad is missing. I'd force my boss to move ahead to 5.3 immediately if traits had made it in. :)

terry chay @ 07.05.2009 01:39 CEST
PHP 5.3 contains the features that aren't unicode related that are slated for PHP 6. The difference here is that in 5.3 even with ext/intl you still need to be utf-8, but in 6 everything is written all correct to be unrestricted with strings without the need of intl, as well as the permanent removal of some "features" of 5 that was flagged in STRICT.

I think the general idea is that major numbers mean a compatibility/feature break, minor numbers imply a configuration break or bundling change (as well as a Zend Engine compatibility break), and point releases are bug fixes.

Other things you forgot to mention are namespacing and a greatly improved interpreter. The latter is the only thing I really care about about in 5.3.

Since support for PHP 4 is killed off, one expects that things that aren't related to that should continue to be rolled into PHP 5 for a long time after PHP 6 is released.

Progress marches on.

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