A Tuesday deadline has been set in which several leading open-source PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) projects plan to stop supporting older versions of PHP in upcoming releases.
The Go PHP 5 campaign, sponsored by several PHP proponents, is intended to move the PHP developer community fully onto the PHP version 5 platform. Among the projects backing the effort are Symfony, Typo3, phpMyAdmin, Drupal, Propel, and Doctrine. These vendors are committing to use PHP 5.2 in releases developed after Tuesday.
Campaign advocates also have issued an invitation to other PHP projects to participate, and so far, about 150 software projects and about 200 Web hosters have committed.
Most PHP Web applications run in PHP 4 and 5. PHP 4 was released in 2000, while PHP 5 became available in 2004.
"We think PHP is absolutely the platform going forward," said Mark de Visser, chief marketing officer at PHP tools vendor Zend Technologies, which is supporting the Go PHP5 effort.
PHP 5 features object orientation, for enterprise application development, and Web services capabilities, de Visser said. But adoption has been slow because of issues like Web hosts that offer PHP 4 by default, Go PHP 5 said.
"No one's moving to PHP 5 because no one wants to be first," said Larry Garfield, a co-founder of the Go PHP 5 project.
Hosts will not upgrade until projects do, but projects will not upgrade until hosts do, thus presenting a chicken-and-egg situation, according to Go PHP 5's July 2007 statement. Go PHP 5 hopes to give Web hosts incentive to upgrade servers to newer versions of PHP.
Additionally, extensions to the PHP 4 platform are ceasing, according to Garfield. There will only be major security issues considered between now and August, and after that, PHP development stops, he said.
PHP 6, meanwhile, is not due for more than a year, de Visser said. It will focus on internationalization, he said.
This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.
Download now »
Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.
Download now »
The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.
Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation
Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.
Download now »
Sign up to receive InfoWorld Resource Alerts
1 Recommendation
