Go PHP5

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iamsure
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Go PHP5

Post by iamsure »

There is a community effort underway at Go PHP 5 to encourage the widespread upgrade and adoption of php5.2.

Quoting them..
The listed software projects have all agreed that effective February 5th, 2008, any new feature releases will have a minimum version requirement of at least PHP 5.2.0...It is our belief that this will provide web hosts reason to upgrade and the PHP development team the ability to retire PHP 4 and focus efforts on PHP 5 and the forthcoming PHP 6, all without penalizing any existing project for being "first out of the gate".
Has there been discussion in the phpbb development team about this initiative?

PHPBB has an enormous installed base, and a commitment from PHPBB would certainly help push this initiative along.

Thoughts, discussion?
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christhatsme
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Re: Go PHP5

Post by christhatsme »

phpBB already supports php 5
All MOD downloads should be back now - Sorry for that and serious lack of support! - If anyone wants to take over or help with any of my MODs the offer would be apreciated as I have little time for phpBB Modding recently!

Again very sorry for not supporting these MODs recently.
iamsure
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Re: Go PHP5

Post by iamsure »

christhatsme wrote:phpBB already supports php 5
Its a bit more than that. The listed software projects have all agreed that effective February 5th, 2008, any new feature releases will have a minimum version requirement of at least PHP 5.2.0.

Doing so helps encourage hosting companies to migrate to PHP5.2, and helps projects by enabling them to use the latest features in PHP.
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lurttinen
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Re: Go PHP5

Post by lurttinen »

I'm curious.
What would you say to the hundreds of thousands phpBB administrators wich would update their forum just to see that PHP4 support is gone and their forum is destroyed?

"Get a better host" ??
I doubt that... ;)
Webhotels resources and limited on what and when they upgrade.

Updating is allways recommended, but to drop something over night is exaggeration and trouble.
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iamsure
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Re: Go PHP5

Post by iamsure »

lurttinen wrote:What would you say to the hundreds of thousands phpBB administrators wich would update their forum just to see that PHP4 support is gone and their forum is destroyed?
First, their support isn't gone over night. They have 211 days before that occurs. Thats a long time.

Second, I would say to those administrators that they are gaining new features. Between full unicode support, built-in acceleration, and a much faster performance in general, there are substantial improvements.

The suggestion isn't to stop coding a version which works on PHP4, but to embrace features in PHP5 without concern to whether it exists in PHP4. Think of it this way, does PHPBB ensure support for php3? No. At some point the switch will occur, the question is when.

A good example is the input_filter. Implementing a solid input_filter is difficult, time consuming, and error prone. By using the function included in php5.2, you save that development time, and can focus on other areas. Its not reliably available in PHP<5.2, so many people don't use it. Thats just one example. Unicode support, xml parsing, and more all dangle the carrot to make it a worthwhile transition.

But most importantly, every project on the list at GoPHP5 is telling users to request support for their applications, which in 200+ days will require php5. Many hosts offer it, some don't yet.
lurttinen wrote:"Get a better host" ??
I doubt that... ;)
Webhotels resources and limited on what and when they upgrade.
What do you think thousands of webhosts are going to say to users of dozens of major applications (including phpmyadmin!) who need php5 support that they don't offer? Take your money somewhere else?

I doubt that.

Thats why community initiatives are effective. They change the chicken-and-egg situation to encourage upgrading. PHPBB could be a part of that, or not.
lurttinen wrote:Updating is allways recommended, but to drop something over night is exaggeration and trouble.
211 days is not over night.

Further, thats 211 days from now. Keep in mind that PHP5.2 was released in November, while PHP4 was released over seven YEARS ago. How long do you continue to support that?
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A_Jelly_Doughnut
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Re: Go PHP5

Post by A_Jelly_Doughnut »

Keeping in mind that I was the person who ported phpBB2 to the php5 platform 3 years ago...

As a developer, PHP5 offers very little of value. Mysqli, the stri___() functions, and SQLite support are the only things I have had the occasion to use. Things like improved classes and the new database interface don't affect many applications.

As a web host, I would rather skip to PHP6. This is the release which will finally fix many of PHP4's shortcomings, like register_globals. That is nice from a developer's view, too.

The requirement of 4.3.3 for Olympus is stymieing some users. That subversion is about as old as PHP5, and also not universal.

[edit] I will admit that I was not aware of the filter extension in PHP 5.2.

Having phpMyAdmin on the list will cause one of two things: a) a fork of the PMA project or b) success of the Gophp5 initiative. It is a weighty project for web hosts.[/edit]
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Pezzoni
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Re: Go PHP5

Post by Pezzoni »

I like the idea.

As a developer, it would be good to move away from the (now archaic) PHP4 without compramising compatibility.

As a webhost, it is a bit of a pain, but it would be good to be able to be 'up to date' without compromising users ability to run older scripts.

I am surprised to see PHPMyAdmin on there - definitely a bold step.
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Re: Go PHP5

Post by beatme101 »

I'm a host and a developer somewhat, and I don't like this idea at all. If I'm forced to upgrade to PHP 5, then I am going to have to do some time consuming work with configuration files as well as editing php scripts that become incompatible with PHP 5.
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Re: Go PHP5

Post by 3Di »

I don't see any reason why we can't make our scripts Cross-PHP_version (IFs on recognitions, rewriting then some functions or the like), as phpBB usually does AFAIR.

Oops, I'm not killing the discussion here, though. :)
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battye
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Re: Go PHP5

Post by battye »

phpMyAdmin are taking a huge risk by putting themselves on the list. If this initiative doesn't take off, phpMyAdmin is as good as finished and a new project will take its place (anyone want to join me in the creation of this new project? ;)).

On the flipside, their presence will carry a lot of weight, and PHP 5.2 will become used universally.

Personally, I am happy with the way things are at the moment. Time will play its part, and PHP4 and below will become phased out by itself. I think it is silly trying to speed up the inevitable, it doesn't really gain much.
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Re: Go PHP5

Post by Phil »

battye wrote:anyone want to join me in the creation of this new project? ;)).
Look me up :D
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thecoalman
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Re: Go PHP5

Post by thecoalman »

iamsure wrote: What do you think thousands of webhosts are going to say to users of dozens of major applications (including phpmyadmin!) who need php5 support that they don't offer? Take your money somewhere else?
Having just come across this situation myself wanting to install the latest mediawiki I think my host has the right idea, give the user the choice. I can select in the hosting CP between 4 or 5 . Being that I'm still running a phpbb2 forum I was hesitant to switch it to 5 but no problems yet as far as I can see.
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Jhong
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Re: Go PHP5

Post by Jhong »

Go PHP5 sounds like a good idea. I don't think PMA will die if it doesn't catch on -- hosts will just use older versions until a cool new feature piques their interest, it's no big deal.

And for the styles team: Stop supporting IE6.

Stop bothering to check whether standards-compliant CSS renders properly in IE6.

Backward-compatibility is good, but you really have to examine the costs/benefit.
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Phil
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Re: Go PHP5

Post by Phil »

IE6 is still one of the most widely used browsers, so that'd be a little more than naive :D
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Jhong
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Re: Go PHP5

Post by Jhong »

It's the second most widely used browser on our fishkeeping community.

Firefox 2.0.0.4 is way ahead. IE7 is third.

This is a non-techie site, with a good cross-section of people. (I mention the nature of the site to prove it is so).

It suggests that people who keep up to date choose Firefox. The rest are people like me who are forced to use IE6 at work.

I'm not suggesting dropping IE6 altogether -- I'm suggesting not expending any significant effort introducing CSS hacks to get things to display perfectly in IE6.

I don't think this is naiive -- I think it is reality. Screw wasting too much time on non standards-compliant browsers. The real-world stats show IE6 is fading. Let's give more reason for it to fade -- let's put it out of its misery.
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