Should WordPress produce a PHP 5 only version?
PHP 5 has been around for a long time now but it still isn’t getting the takeup that you would expect from the newest version of one of the most popular languages around. There has been some debate about WordPress and PHP 5 over the past 6 months, and I couldn’t go as far as some of them and suggest ignoring PHP 4, but that’s not to say the advantages in PHP 5 should be ignored either.
PHP 5 offers some advantages over PHP4: Better database support, better xml support, better object support not to mention that PHP 6 is not massively distant and will not be as backward compatible as version 5 so any step in the right direction must be a good thing, right? The changes will need to happen eventually.
Because of this, and the fact that I quite like PHP 5, I would quite like to see a PHP 5 only version to run along side the current version.
The benefit of this approach is that, as it is already PHP 5 compatible, nothing needs to change just yet. Just be separate.
I think there would be benefits in freeing up developers who want to work in PHP5 to offer additional (core or otherwise) functionality for that version only. They would be free then to optimise for 5, rather than just being compatible with 5, and to produce plugins that worked on that version alone.
Part of me likes to think that if these developers hit on a seriously good piece of funcationality that this would help drive migration to PHP5 as self-hosters looked for hosts with the appropriate installations but that might well be wishful thinking on my part.
What do you think? do you care? is it too much effor for too little gain? is it a good idea? let me know.
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1
Di Turner (http://www.diturner.co.uk) commented at 1:27 am, 18th 11 2007:
Maintaining two versions of WordPress would surely slow down development of new features.
I don’t think making it PHP5 only would compel me to upgrade as fundamentally I’m lazy and it would be too much of a hassle to move my site and email to new hosting.
2
Andrew Rickmann (http://www.arickmann.co.uk) commented at 10:35 am, 18th 11 2007:
Di, it certainly might slow down development, but on the other hand it might encourage development that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. The former is probably more likely though.
In all honesty if my host hadn’t already switched to PHP 5 I think I would feel as you do, that it is not worth the effort.
What sways it for me though is that I really like PHP as a language, but it is missing things when you compare it to the big hitters like C#, and Java. PHP 5 is much closer, PHP 6 even more so, and I really want to use these features.
3
Amit Bhawani (http://www.amitbhawani.com/blog/) commented at 3:47 pm, 19th 11 2007:
Well being a web hosting company i would suggest wordpress not to upgrade to php 5 right now :p, you understand the reason right :p
May be after a year this can happen because right now php4 is ok for everyone i guess.
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Andrew Rickmann (http://www.arickmann.co.uk) commented at 6:30 pm, 19th 11 2007:
Amit, I agree that it would not be a good plan to abandon PHP4 right now.
I guess all I am really suggesting is that there may be benefits in making moves in that direction.
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Damian Manifold (http://dcoda.co.uk) commented at 4:08 pm, 29th 12 2007:
As a plug-in developer for WordPress I’ve been itching to use some of the class stuff that PHP 5 provides. Up till now I haven’t looked to deeply into what else is available since i could not use.
Whilst navigating PHP.net noticed a post from last may saying announcing the end of support of php 4 at the end of the year.
After checking wish my host, they are upgrading my PHP at the end of the year too.
With the end of support I’d be interested to find out how many people will still be left on PHP 4. I would hope none.
6
Andrew Rickmann (http://www.arickmann.co.uk) commented at 4:51 pm, 29th 12 2007:
I share your desire Damian but I am perhaps not so optomistic. I guess we will have to wait and see.