Re: RIP PHP 4?

On 7/12/07, David Coallier <davidc@php.net> wrote:

On 7/11/07, Tijnema <tijnema@gmail.com> wrote: On 7/11/07, Jeff Griffiths <jeffg@activestate.com> wrote:

chris# wrote:

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:30:26 -0500, Larry Garfield <larry@garfieldtech.com> wrote:

...

The claim that is still repeated that one "has to" rewrite everything to be OO in order to port to PHP 5 is, quite simply, FUD.

True. But then again, what's the point of using 5 if you're not inclined, or have the need to write OO apps? It is simply alot of wasted language/ space and resources, as a whole. Hey! I don't need OO and I've already got PHP4 installed. Why bother with 5 at all?

There are a number of nice features in PHP5 that have nothing to do with actually creating your own classes or extending built-ins, such as (off the top of my head): - file_get_contents()

PHP 4 >= 4.3.0, PHP 5

- simplexml / DOM parsing / libxml2 - json_encode|decode

JSON PECL extension can be installed for PHP >= 4.3.0

- stable APC - SPL - PDO ( although you can get it for 4.4, you can't depend on it being there ) - backwards compatibility with lots of procedural PHP4 code =) If you're writing an app that does a lot of json or xml parsing or output, *even if you don't use the class keyword anywhere in your own code* PHP5 is a better language than PHP4. Drupal is a great example of this because even though Drupal doesn't use classes, many Drupal devs want to use PHP5 features in Drupal core. Right Larry? JeffG

Except for the OO, I don't see anything that can't be done in PHP4, while it can be done in PHP5. Some workarounds are maybe needed, but it mostly doesn't require more than 10 lines of PHP code extra. file_put_contents (Probably the one you meant Jeff) any problems with fopen(), fwrite(), fclose()? It is exactly 2 lines more ;)

http_build_query foreach($array as $k => $v) {

if(!isset($string)) { $string = "?".$k."=".$v; } else { $string .= "&".$k."=".$v; } } That's 5 lines more ;)

xslt* (yeah.. not xslt2.. still ;-) ) PHP 4 >= 4.0.3 ;)

streams (good ones) I've only wanted to use stream_get_contents a few times, but it wasn't

available for PHP4 (My shared host), so I went back to fsockopen(), fread(),fclose() ;)

There are so many functions that have changed... here: http://cvs.php.net/viewvc.cgi/pear/PHP_Compat/Compat/Function/

I know ;) But viewing it through the eye of an regular developer that doesn't use OO, PHP5 doesn't seem better than PHP4. But, This is NOT my opinion, I would love to go for PHP6 already :) I have PHP6 on my dev server at home, but if I write something for it, it won't run on my prod server running PHP4 (upgrading is planned in a month or so :) ) I have PHP5 a my dev server now, and that does already cause a lot of trouble when I try to move it to my prod server. (The reason for my other mail)

To reply to chris above there... yes you could have used any kind of DOM in whatever browser and javascript, however, if you wanted to do dom manipulation with php, you had to use the domxml pecl extension (http://pecl.php.net/package/domxml) which was outdated from it's first day (No offence to you chregu :P the extension was useful but ugly and slow as a$$) What else.. I mean... seriously guys.. what the deuce ? Get over php4.. yeah made us all win money.. but now make real applications.. if you need to make simple func scripts, go ahead, you even have more functions than ever.. Tijnema -- Vote for PHP Color Coding in Gmail! -> http://gpcc.tijnema.info -- PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php -- David Coallier, Founder & Software Architect, Agora Production (http://agoraproduction.com) 51.42.06.70.18

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