Re: [PHP4BETA] PHP 4.0 Beta 4 released

The PHP Dev Team rocks 2x. I can say little else that hasn't said or isn't as painfully obvious as what I said already. Thanks for what I'm sure will be another kick-butt PHP release! Off to try this release out and put it into production. Cary Thus spake Zeev Suraski (zeev@zend.com): > The PHP Group is pleased to announce the availability of Beta 4 of PHP 4.0. > > This development release is intended to be the final beta version; If > there are no significant show stoppers, PHP 4.0 will be wrapped up for > release in the near future. > > PHP 4.0 features a lot of new features, bug fixes and performance > enhancements. Some of the highlights are: > > * Built-in XML support. The expat library is now bundled with PHP. Thanks > goes to James Clark's for letting us bundle his package in the distribution! > * Better and more reliable support for Microsoft IIS and PWS, under both > Windows NT and Windows 9x. Performance of the ISAPI module under Windows > has been improved by 30%-150%. > * Introduced PEAR, the PHP Extension and Add-on Repository. PEAR is a code > repository for common PHP extensions and library code. Currently, the > primary focus is on a database abstraction layer. PEAR is dedicated to > Stig's little new-born daughter, Malin Bakken. > * Introduced a specialized memory cache for common data types in Zend (in > plain English - performance was boosted). > * Introduced a new language keyword, 'use', equivalent to require(), but > guarantees that the file is only loaded once (used in PEAR). > * Finished work on the Web Server Abstraction Layer. PHP's interface to > the Web server is now completely abstracted, and it should be extremely > easy to add support for any Web server that has a module interface. > * Improved the built-in session module. > * Added support for macros in the php.ini file (e.g., you can now use > error_reporting = E_ALL&~E_NOTICE, instead of error_reporting=7). > > In addition to all of that, *lots* of bugs have been fixed, and a lots of > functions have been added. A full list of changes is enclosed at the end > of this letter. It'll also be a good idea to take a look at the > php.ini-dist file, to see the many new directives that were added or > modified in there. > > We've worked a lot on Beta 4 to ensure that it's stable and reliable, and > that it lives up to the expectations of PHP 4.0. We encourage all users of > previous betas of PHP 4.0 to upgrade, and all users of PHP 3.0 to (at the > very least) begin planning their upgrade. My personal opinion is that PHP > 4.0 Beta 4 is the best, most reliable version of PHP that's available. > > PHP 4.0 is available as a source package, and as a binary package for > Windows, at: > http://www.php.net/version4/downloads.php > > Happy PHPing! > > Zeev > > > > 20 February 2000, Version 4.0 Beta 4 > - Introduced $HTTP_POST_FILES[], that contains information about files uploaded > through HTTP upload (Zeev) > - Made PHP work under Microsoft Personal Web Server, under both Windows NT > workstation and Windows 95 (Zeev) > - Made multipart/form-data content obey to the variables_order directive (Zeev) > - Updated the browscap module to work with PHP 4.0 (Zeev) > - Recover gracefully in ISAPI after the client prematurely presses STOP (Andi) > - Fix bug in unset() on array offsets which are referenced more than once > (Andi, Zend library) > - Improved ISAPI module - it should no longer be necessary to set PHP as > an ISAPI filter, only as an ISAPI extension, unless you wish to perform > authentication using PHP. This didn't yet get enough testing, but it > should work (Zeev) > - Fixed RFC1867 file upload under Windows (Zeev) > - Initital support for pdflib 2.20 (Uwe) > - Added PostgreSQL support for DB (Rui Hirokawa <louis@cityfujisawa.ne.jp>) > - Re-introduced "none" for disabling auto_prepend/append_file (Stig) > - Added DB/storage (Stig, PEAR) > - Introduced DB warnings (Stig, PEAR) > - Fix overrun in strip_tags (Stas) > - Fixed crash in strip_tags() and related functions. (Thies) > - Workaround for bogus POST-Data from IE/Mac. (Thies) > Patch by Alain Malek <alain@virtua.ch> > - Finished the server abstraction layer; All of the PHP code is now shared > across different servers (Apache, CGI, IIS, etc.), except for thin > interface modules (Zeev) > - Added NULL-support in gettype(). (Thies) > - base64_decode() will decode POST data correct. (Thies) > Patch submitted by: Turadg Aleahmad <turadg@wise.berkeley.edu> > - Much more work on domxml. Build xml tree, create xml doc works (Uwe) > - Made foreach() work on objects. (Thies, Zend library) > - Added domxml extension based on libxml, still little functionality (Uwe) > - Fixed memory corruption in fgetss(), strip_tags() and gzgetss() (Zeev) > - Updated calendar dynamic library to work with PHP 4. (Evan) > - Added strncmp() function, courtesy of Walter. (Andrei) > - Made the output of var_dump() more informative. (Thies) > - Fixed some OCIBindByName() problems. (Thies) > - Protect the ISAPI module against exceptions. Stack overflows in scripts are > now nicely detected and handled (Zeev) > - Fixed possible buffer-overflow in base64_decode. (Thies) > - Fixed possible buffer-overflow in setcookie(). (Thies) > - Fixed signal() bug that could cause the Apache master process to > die. (Thies) > - Added session_set_cookie_params() function. (Andrei) > - If header information is sent after output has already been sent, the warning > message will now state the filename and line number at which the first > output > was made (Zeev) > - Added the XML Expat library to the standard PHP source distribution thanks > to its author James Clark (Andi & Zeev) > - Added XML support to the default Win32 build (Andi & Zeev) > - Added socket_get_status() function. Renamed: > set_socket_timeout() -> socket_set_timeout() > set_socket_blocking() -> socket_set_blocking(). (Andrei) > - Added realpath() function. (Andrei) > - mktime interprets years in the range 0-70 now as 2000-2070. You can > continue to specify the complete year (i.e. 1920) (Sascha) > - Added the ability to control the environment variables the user is allowed > to change in Safe Mode, using INI directives (Zeev) > - Fixed a crash bug in strtr() working on large input strings (Zeev) > - Ora_GetColumn()/Ora_FetchInto() now return NULL for NULL-Columns. (Thies) > - OCI8 now supports binding of NULL-values. Module cleanups. (Thies) > - Added ability to set timeout on socket read operations through > set_socket_timeout() function. (Andrei) > - Added implicit_flush INI directive (Zeev) > - Added implicit_flush() to control whether flush() should be called > implicitly after any output (Zeev) > - Fixed a crash in pfsockopen() (Zeev) > - Fixed a possible crash in phpinfo() (Zeev) > - Added register_argc_argv INI directive, to allow to selectively disable > the declaration of the $argv and $argc variables for increased > performance (Zeev) > - Added $HTTP_ENV_VARS[] and $HTTP_SERVER_VARS[] support, which similarly > to $HTTP_GET_VARS[], contain environment and server variables. Setting > register_globals to Off will now also prevent registration of the > environment and server variables into the global scope (Zeev) > - Renamed gpc_globals INI directive to register_globals (Zeev) > - Introduced variables_order that deprecates gpc_order, and allows control > over the server and environment variables, in addition to GET/POST/Cookies > (Zeev) > - new function cpdf_set_document_limits() (Uwe) > - Applied safe-mode patch to popen(). (Patch by Kristian Köhntopp) > - str_repeat() now returns correct length. (Thies) > - Don't assume libz and libpng are installed for the GD checks (Rasmus) > - Implemented support for <boolean> and <null> types according > to WDDX version 1.0 (Andrei) > - Made var_dump()/serialize()/unserialize() NULL aware. (Thies) > - Added new NULL constant (Zeev, Zend library) > - Fixed -c support in the standalone CGI binary (Zeev) > - Increased PHP's performance by 5-15% using a new memory cache (Andi & Zeev, > Zend library) > - Improved the php.ini reader to support constants and bitwise operators (Zeev) > - Fixed strrev() to no longer modify arg1. (Thies) > - Fixed buffer overruns in iptcembed(). (Thies) > - Fixed a bug in ODBC error reporting (Zeev) > - Added PHP_Logo_GUID() and Zend_Logo_GUID() functions, that return the GUIDs > of the PHP and Zend logos used in phpinfo() (Zeev) > - Added GNU Pth support (Sascha, TSRM library) > - Removed select(), fd_set() and fd_isset() - will be reimplemented soon! > (Thies) > - Improved Win32 performance significantly by using different mutexes (Zeev, > TSRM library) > - Made quotemeta() and preg_quote() binary-safe. (Andrei) > - Added UDP support in fsockopen(). (Evan) > - Added --disable-pear option (Andrei) > - Renamed libzend repository to Zend (Zeev) > - Added support for thttpd (Sascha) > - Added session.cache_limiter and cache_expire options (Sascha) > - Restored the PHP_VERSION and PHP_OS constants (Zeev) > - Added get_loaded_extensions(), extension_loaded(), and > get_extension_funcs() functions. (Andrei) > - Added date/time stamping to PHP error log file. (Andrei, Joey) > - Added is_subclass_of() function (Andrei, Zend library) > - Implemented count_chars(). (Thies) > - Added class_exists() function (Andrei, Zend library) > - Made strspn() and strcspn() binary-safe. (Andrei) > - Added array_multisort() function. (Andrei) > - Made pageinfo.c thread-safe (Sascha) > - Made implode() binary-safe (Andrei) > - Made strstr(), stristr(), and ucwords() binary-safe() (Andrei) > - Made strtoupper(), strtolower(), substr_replace() binary-safe. (Andrei) > - Fix a crash in the Apache syntax highlighting mode (Zeev) > - Report all ODBC error's not just the one on the top of the stack (lurcher) > - OCI8 now returns NULL values in LONG columns correct. (Thies) > - Added support for a C-like assert() function. (Thies) > - Added CyberCash support. (Evan) > - Made explode() binary-safe. (Thies) > - Made strpos() binary-safe. (Thies) > - Added XML_Set_Object() function, now you can use the XML-Parser from > within an object. (Thies) > - Session vars are now decoded into $HTTP_STATE_VARS[] array and the > globals, depending on track_vars and gpc_globals settings (Andrei) > - Added get_used_files() function - returns a hash mapping the use()'d files > to their full path (Zeev) > - PHP 4 scripts will now obey the max_execution_time setting and actually > time out (Rasmus) > - Added configure command to phpinfo() output (Stig) > - Added optional socket path to the mysql_?connect() functions (Rasmus) > - Made mysql and gd work as shared extensions again (Stig) > - Make the global GET/POST/Cookie variables and their $HTTP_*_VARS[] > counterparts > be references to each other (Zeev) > - Added support for the 'use' keyword - behaves like 'require', but will > not > use the same file more than once (Andi & Zeev, Zend library) > - Added check to see if a persistent connection is still valid with the > ODBC interface before reusing (nick@easysoft.com) > - Added DBMaker support (patch by Pax Tsai <paxtsai@lion.syscom.com.tw>) > - Renamed "PECL" to "PEAR" (PHP Extension and Add-on Repository) (Stig) > - buildconf now uses build.mk (Stig) > - Disable symlinks to urls (Rasmus) > - Informix driver now reflects version of ESQL/C used (Danny) > - Modified session_register() to take variable number of arguments (Andrei) > - Fixed file descriptor leak in thread safe mode (Zeev, Zend library) > - Added select(), fd_set() and fd_isset() (Evan) > - cpdf support has been ported from php3, needs ClibPDF 2.x (Uwe) > - Fixed a leak when using automatic output buffering (Zeev) > - Introduced PECL - PHP Extension and Code Library > (prounounced "pickle") (Stig) > - Fixed inconsistencies in the implementation of here-docs (Andi & Zeev, Zend > library) > - Fixed a problem with constant class-member initializations (Andi & Zeev, > Zend library) > - Fixed float-compare in min(),max(),a[r]sort(),[r]sort() (Thies) > - Implemented get_html_translation_table() function (Thies) > - Implemented array_flip() function. Returns input-array with key, value > flipped (Thies) > - Added Berkeley DB3 support in DBA (Sascha) > - Implemented 2-Arg version of strtr($str,$translation_array). This can be used > to revert what htmlspecialchars() did (Thies) > - Fixed mem-overwrite in XML_Parse_Into_Struct (Thies) > - Added substr_replace() function (Andrei) > > -- > Zeev Suraski <zeev@zend.com> http://www.zend.com/ > > > -- > PHP 4.0 Beta Mailing List <http://www.php.net/version4/> > To unsubscribe, e-mail: php4beta-unsubscribe@lists.php.net > For additional commands, e-mail: php4beta-help@lists.php.net > To contact the list administrators, e-mail: php4beta-admin@lists.php.net > -- Cary Collett cary@ratatosk.org http://ratatosk.org/~cary "To me boxing is like ballet, except that there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit eachother." -- Jack Handy