[wp-hackers] New on the list, want to clean up code...

[Chris]

I fully agree with you Helgi. I much prefer developing for PHP 5 rather 
than PHP 4, and I definitely prefer developing for PHP 5 rather than 
both PHP 4 and PHP 5. That said, even I agree that it burdens too many 
end users of the software if it only supported PHP 5 as there are many, 
many hosts that still only offer PHP 4 and many more hosts that only 
support PHP 5 if you know how to switch to it or request for it.

Supporting both PHP 4 and PHP 5 is the most reasonable course of action 
to take as it 1) drastically reduces the amount of frustration of end 
users, 2) removes the need to support people who don't know why their 
WordPress install isn't working due to running PHP 4, and 3) makes it 
easier for an IT novice to get up and running with WordPress. Sure, 
supporting only PHP 5 would make it easier on the developers, but it 
would do so at the cost of the end users. I don't think it's a stretch 
to assume that the number of end users outweighs the number of 
developers (themers and plugin devs included). In the end, everything we 
do with WordPress is to make it easier for the end user, and that's the 
benchmark by which all such decisions should be weighed.

For Matt's take on the subject, you can check out his On PHP 
<http://ma.tt/2007/07/on-php/> essay.

Chris Jean
http://gaarai.com/
http://wp-roadmap.com/



Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson wrote:
> Alright, thanks for the response. I'll stick to 4.3 features then.
>
> Are there any plans for changing that? PHP 5 not only contains things useful
> for developers, but a few things that can drastically help with
> optimization, most notably the __autoload() function, which can be used to
> load only classes which are necessary when they are needed, as opposed to
> loading all of them, even if 99% of them are never used during the execution
> of the page.
>
> Furthermore and perhaps more importantly, PHP 4.x development has been
> discontinued altogether. Personally, I find this to be enough of a reason to
> seriously contemplate going for PHP 5.
>
> I don't like to nag, these are just points for consideration. I do
> understand the points for sticking to PHP 4.x as per the reference you gave.
>
> Peace.
> Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson
> helgi at binary.is
>
> On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 2:32 PM, Austin Matzko <if.website at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 9:28 AM, Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson <helgi at binary.is>
>> wrote:
>>     
>>> 3. Is it okay to use PHP 5.x code?
>>>       
>> For the time being, WordPress must support PHP back to 4.3:
>> http://wordpress.org/about/requirements/
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