Comments on: End of the line for PHP 4

Programmers say they'll stop developing version 4 of the software for creating dynamic Web sites, but some who prefer it to the current version aren't happy.

[ralfthedog]

Fork this!

We are talking about Open Source Software. If the community wants to use PHP-4 for the next 100 years, we can. Anyone who wants to continue developing PHP-4 is free to fork it into a new project.

Open Source Software forks all the time. The forks that get used grow and become stronger. Other forks tend to slowly fade away, or get relegated to a nitch like OS/2 (Just had to get a friendly jab in at the commander).

In the end, well written code will be easy to port. Badly written code should be rewritten anyway.

[maverick_nick]

Forget It

Who cares about PHP. Open source users don't know what they're missing. I was an open source fan when I couldn't afford proprietary stuff, but now that I can, I've realized why the software costs what it does.

ASP.NET rocks and SQL Server is a 1000 times better than MySQL.

5..4..3..2..1.. Open Source community up in arms :)

[ralfthedog]

If you are running IIS your system is wide open.

I can see someone using IIS to self publish chocolate chip cookie recipes. I would not use it in a professional environment. I would not picture anyone running Microsoft SQL Server.

If you must run proprietary SQL run Oracle. It is great for high volume applications, and does not have the inherent insecurities of the Microsoft products.

If you are in a professional environment, you need to run Unix, or a Unix derived operating system. That is more true for servers, and most true for anything related to the internet.

[qwerty75]

Does any one care?

PHP is a very flawed language, in design and security and its attraction to amateurs is the second leading cause of Internet insecurity(of cousre, MS is #1).

The only P in Lamp not worth using is PHP. Python is great, Perl annoys the crap out of me, but is still pretty good.

Ruby on Rails is better designed, easier, and more secure. Deploying Rails apps needs to improve though.

JSP is not the easiest API around, but isn't that bad and is a good performer and secure.

ASP? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA Yeah, lock your self into MS and pay the price in terms of money, loss of choice, performance and security woes.

[LuvThatCO2]

Lots of people care

PHP is hardly a flawed language. Its a very successful language. Users of Python, Ruby, and other lesser languages are just jealous over PHP's success... just like unpopular high school girls are jealous of the prom queen.

PHP is no more or less secure than any of the other languages designed for web use. PHP does give you a lot of rope you can hang yourself with if you''re a newbie. But good programmers have little problem securing PHP based applications. And its hard to question PHP's productivity.

[LuvThatCO2]

PHP4 still KING!

........
"What we find is that everyone who is doing active development has already migrated," Gutmans said. "What's skewing the numbers is there are lot of legacy applications on PHP 4 that just work, and nobody wants to change them."
.......

Thats simply a lie. PHP5 hardly registers among PHP users. This guy is talking about Zend *customers*, not PHP users in general.

........
What was it that made PHP 4 so successful?...Why wasn't PHP 5 compelling to that same audience? Are the things we're doing in PHP 6 crucial to our core audience or simply 'good' language problems to solve?"
........

Thats the key - PHP5 offered little past some features of academic interest, but of little practical value. The benefits of moving to PHP5 are far outweighed by the risks associated with trying to update a large application. PHP5 suffers too much from a 'we wish we were just like java' disease.