PHP 5.4.0 released

[randomdrake]

Big hitters:

array dereferencing - $object->method()[$index] is now valid syntax

built-in webserver via CLI - php -s - http://php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.webserver.php

traits and the insteadof operator - http://php.net/language.oop5.traits.php

shortened array syntax - $array = [1, 2, [1, 2, 3], 4];

Finally removed register_globals ;)

Default charset of UTF-8!

Read all about it! http://www.php.net/manual/en/migration54.php

[smsm42]

Also it is faster and much better on memory consumption (depends on app of course, but 10-20% speedup and 20-30% less peak memory have been observed on some mainstream apps).

[duskwuff]

> Finally removed register_globals ;)

They've also removed magic_quotes. A few functions that queried its status still exist, but you can't turn it on.

[lukifer]

That array syntax is beautiful, been waiting for that for a long time.

[mhitza]

You forgot (new Object)->method()

[nikic]

The www.php.net mirror will only be rsynced tomorrow, for now use http://docs.php.net/manual/en/migration54.php instead to get infos about 5.4 features. It's a good bit more up to date.

[shaunxcode]

I am curious what the internal hang up is which prevents:

funcReturnsFunc(1)(2)

[tabbyjabby]

Really looking forward to traits. We have some hacks using interfaces and __call that we have been using to try and approximate traits, but the real thing is always much better. :)

[manuletroll]

Some of those might just make me do some PHP again.

[pkulak]

I just did a Google search for register_globals... mind boggling.

[orthecreedence]

This is a nice list of improvements. As someone who spends a lot of the day in PHP-land, this is going to make me happy. As someone who also controls our entire server stack, waiting for someone else to decide to upgrade will not be a problem :)

I'm glad the PHP devs are starting to actually make it a "real" language. It seems like PHP has always been the fat kid bumbling along behind everyone shouting "wait up guys!!" With closures in 5.3, syntax improvements and removal of horrible features (register_globals, magic_quotes, etc) in 5.4, it's shaping up quite nicely.

Thanks, PHP devs!

[Pengwin]

> waiting for someone else to decide to upgrade will not be a problem :)

It is sad that a lot of servers are not like this, and PHP 5.4 will take ages to appear, if at all.

Heck, I know of a hosting company still using PHP4.

[dirkdeman]

They also improved the zend engine, CURL extension, added Tokyo cabinet abstract and Berkeley DB Support! Added a couple of hashes, Improved JSON Extension (JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK!) and a whole lot of bug fixes. The UTF-8 part was long overdue, glad they fixed that.

I spend a lot of time programming in PHP. Its reputation is pretty bad, but updates like this keep me going!

[itmag]

PHP was my first love (actually my second, after QBasic) when I was a teenager.

Would love to get back into it now that it's a "real" language.

Got any good tips about books on modern PHP programming?

[tlack]

Other great little changes:

  - you can now do function()[0] 
  - <?= always on despite what you say in the INI
  - safe_mode always off

Seems like a return to sanity for the PHP team, at least temporarily.. I even kinda like the traits!

[klausa]

How is '<?=' being always on great change? I always thought it was weird and kind of stupid, but I'm genuinely curious how is that great thing.

Also,

  Chained string offsets - e.g. $a[0][0] where $a is a string - now work.

I have no idea how is that supposed to work. What should be the outcome on, say:

  $a = "foo"; $a[0][0]

What about (assuming $a is still "foo"):

  $a[0][1]

etc.?

[honopu]

sorry when you are motoring through code typing <?php echo $var vs <?=$var it gets to be tedious.

I understand for general php portability that its better to use the <?php echo vs <?=$whatever syntax, but less code is a good thing.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

They finally added short array syntax, removed register_globals and magic quotes, and the default character set is now UTF-8!

This is good news indeed, they seem to be actually improving the language for once.

[CptCodeMonkey]

Seems like the multiyear unit-test coverage campaign is starting to pay off for the core PHP engineers, 5-6 years ago they swore they couldn't do shortened array syntax without major problems.

[sbarre]

Also awesome:

"Arrays cast from SimpleXMLElement now always contain all nodes instead of just the first matching node. All SimpleXMLElement children are now always printed when using var_dump(), var_export() and print_r()."

[hinathan]

I'm glad to see the short array syntax. Having strayed from PHP for a while to work on Ruby and JavaScript I'm really enjoying the ability to leave out semicolons in unambiguous end-of-line situations. Would love to see that make it into PHP at some point.

[chime]

The best part of short array syntax is that now you don't need named parameters to be supported by the language.

    function foo($opts) {
      echo $opts['source'] . $opts['destination'];
    }
    
    // just one extra pair of [] needed instead of new array()
    foo(['source' => '/123', 'destination' => '/abc']);

[dirkdeman]

It took them long enough! In 2008 They voted 14/9 against short array syntax, even though a key user group voted 17/3 pro...

[pavel_lishin]

Isn't that a bit like leaving a loaded handgun laying around? It's unambiguous today, but what if someone else starts working with your code and it's no longer unambiguous?

(edit: talking about JS only.)

[function_seven]

From here: http://www.php.net/manual/en/migration54.other.php

> Chained string offsets - e.g. $a[0][0] where $a is a string - now work.

Can someone explain why this is? I'm sure I'm misunderstanding, but this seems to mean that the following would work:

  $a = "Hello";
  echo $a[0]; //"h"
  echo $a[0][0]; // also "h"??

What's the point? To avoid failure if I pass a string instead of a 2-dimensional array?

[fooyc]

Consistency. Since $a[0] is a string, you would expect $a[0][0] to work too.

[fooyc]

Closures can now have a `$this` (by default it is the class in which the closure is declared). No more $that = $this hacks :)

[dave1010uk]

There's also Closure::bindTo() [0], which should allow you do do slightly more functional programming, like JavaScript's Function.apply() [1]

[0] http://docs.php.net/manual/en/closure.bindto.php

[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/Global...

[evilvoidhamster]

These features can only be good for PHP. Now the community needs to step up and care for the language better. We have seen the popularity of many languages and frameworks rise and fall, but php keeps chugging along. Modern frameworks are awesome, but the community is still rather fractured. I would love to see people more proud of php, to get over the fads around them. Now the language is getting some nice features, I think it's our time to shine :)

[0x0]

Here are the NEWS text: http://svn.php.net/viewvc/php/php-src/tags/php_5_4_0/NEWS?re...

and the UPGRADING instructions: http://svn.php.net/viewvc/php/php-src/tags/php_5_4_0/UPGRADI...

[mahmud]

Can it add hex now?

https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=61095

[greut]

the ticket says Closed, so it better do.

[petdance]

They shipped it with 82 failing tests.

http://gcov.php.net/viewer.php?version=PHP_5_4

Why even bother having a test suite?

[fruchtose]

I'm not sure what's more worrying:

* 82 failing tests

* 44 expected test failures

* 1119 compiler warnings

I want to believe that PHP is growing up, but I have to admit I'm not convinced.

[llgrrl_]

One thing that's pretty important too is PHP-FPM. I've been dreaming about this for a long time for my nginx deployments.

http://php-fpm.org/

[chrisguitarguy]

Hasn't PHP-FPM been part of the PHP core for a while now? Since 5.3.3 (mid 2010) according the PHP FPM site.

[CWIZO]

When will this be available for FreeBSD? I really can't wait for traits, short array syntax and "foo()[0]". This is really a nice upgrade. Good job PHP team!

[rdoherty]

Are there any benchmarks (synthetic or real-world) for the performance improvements? Would have been nice if the release notes had provided some.

[robryan]

There are some around like http://news.php.net/php.internals/57760, seen a couple more but forget where. The trend does seem to be towards far better performance across the board though which is good.

[pavelkaroukin]

I see a lot of mentions of zend in extension names, function names.. Could someone elaborate how Zend relates to PHP?

[tobiasgies]

Zend Technologies Ltd. is a company started by Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans. The product of theirs you most likely heard of is Zend Framework, a PHP framework. It's however not their only product. Another one is the Zend Engine, which is a PHP interpeter and the virtual machine at the heart of PHP and the reason there are references to Zend all over the place.

[dirkdeman]

Zend developed the Zend Engine, a virtual machine. PHP4 is based on the Zend engine. Zend is more than just the framework, it literally is the core of PHP.

[jaequery]

array dereferencing - $object->method()[$index] is now valid syntax

finally ....

[jaequery]

shortened array syntax - $array = [1, 2, [1, 2, 3], 4]; ..... can't express how long i waited for these