If 5.x adoption is anything to go by, I think 6.x adoption will be a long process likewise. It's not as if PHP devs are not excited by these new features either.
Hosting adoption is the main factor IMO. The obvious downside for adopting the 6.x preview features in 5.3 early as a developer is portability, whist the hosting landscape is usually far less excited by the upgrade than us hacks. As always, software developers will lead the way in the adoption of new features like namespaces and LSB, and issue minimum server requirements for their offerings. As far as general web development is concerned, I expect 5.2.x to be the flavour for alot of developers, for quite a while, hence these fabulous features will gain acceptance very slowly. It would be good to see Hosting companies offer more rapidly released version-centric hosting packages, and this will probably get better. But I know of one NZ host in particular who has only just started offering PHP5 last month. As for PHP4 development, the only time I touch it is if I inherit a PHP4 project without a refactoring or rebuild budget. Which is like once or twice in the last year. Cheers Aaron ----- Original Message ----- From: "Grant Paton-Simpson" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 10:06 AM Subject: [phpug] Re: 5.3 is out > > Great news James. > > Namespaces - finally. I know the particular implementation has been > controversial but namespacing is so important for a larger project > replying on multiple libraries. Not just to prevent naming collisions, > but to identify what variable came from where when modifying or > debugging. Namespaces provide intelligibility in other words. > > BTW this is my favourite line from The Zen of Python: > >> Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those! > Does anyone think we'll ever see PHP 6 in widespread use, or just > further development within the 0.5 series? Similar to the way that > Linux is probably never going to see a 3.n.n version. > > And finally, how many people are still working more than half the time > with PHP4? I have been 95% PHP5 since the start but I know that PHP4 is > still very widespread in the wild. > > > James McGlinn wrote: >> This is the big one folks. From php.net: >> >> The PHP development team is proud to announce the immediate release of >> PHP 5.3.0. This release is a major improvement in the 5.X series, >> which includes a large number of new features and bug fixes. >> >> Some of the key new features include: namespaces, late static binding, >> closures, optional garbage collection for cyclic references, new >> extensions (like ext/phar, ext/intl and ext/fileinfo), over 140 bug >> fixes and much more. >> >> For users upgrading from PHP 5.2 there is a migration guide available >> [1], detailing the changes between those releases and PHP 5.3.0. >> >> Further details about the PHP 5.3.0 release can be found in the >> release announcement [2], and the full list of changes are available >> in the ChangeLog [3]. >> >> [1] http://nz2.php.net/migration53 >> >> [2] http://php.net/releases/5_3_0.php >> >> [3] http://php.net/ChangeLog-5.php >> >> >> >> Kind regards, >> James McGlinn >> __________________________________ >> CTO >> Eventfinder Limited >> Suite 106, Heards Building >> 2 Ruskin Street, Parnell, Auckland 1052 >> Phone: +649 365 2342 >> Mobile: +6421 633 234 >> >> [email protected] | www.eventfinder.co.nz >> >> >> >> >> > >> >> > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
