Manual contradiction concerning string access?

Dear list, today, I read in a german PHP forum about a problem with accessing an offset of a string. For example, if you have a variable like $string = "this is my string"; and you want to access the third character at once, I would suggest to use $string{2} so this will return the "i". The (german!) manual says about that: (http://de.php.net/manual/de/language.types.string.php#language.types.string.substr)

*Anmerkung: * Für Abwärtskompatibilität können Sie für den selben Zweck immer noch die Array-Klammern verwenden. Diese Syntax wird jedoch seit PHP 4 missbilligt.

(Translation:)

*Note: *For downwards compatibility you may use the array brackets as well. But as of PHP 4, this syntax is deprecated.

The english manual says: (Link: http://de.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php#language.types.string.substr )

*Note: * They may also be accessed using braces like $str{42} for the same purpose. However, using square array-brackets is preferred because the {braces} style is deprecated as of PHP 6.

I'm a little bit confused by now. Which style should I pick? I use PHP 4 and 5. Is there any other difference? It would be great if someone could solve that contradiction within the manual, too. Thanks in advance. Sincere regards Christian Heinrich