February 5, 2008...7:00 am
Is PHP The Server-Side Equivalent of Internet Explorer?
Let me explain.
Internet Explorer (particularly IE6) is accused of holding back the web. When it was launched in 2001, it was was very advanced and the number of web designers created standards based web sites was negligible so it’s lack of standards compliance wasn’t such an issue.
Since then though, other browsers have raced ahead in terms of standards implementation and are regularly updated. Web designers have adopted web standards more widely and now have a plethora of web browsers to support.
But, while other browsers have streaked ahead and even IE6 has been replaced with the option of new versions, the predominant browser on the desktop is still IE6; a seven year old technology.
IT departments afraid of change, or breaking their web apps and users who are just not aware that there are different versions of browsers have maintained this status quo.
To a certain extent we see the same thing with PHP. PHP6 is in development, but adoption rates of PHP5 are still very low and this in it’s own way is holding back development on the web.
Most ISPs still roll out PHP4 and most of the free blogging systems, CMSs and other PHP web apps are still built on PHP4.
But there is a movement to try to get developers and hosting companies to switch over to PHP 5.2 and they are calling for people to start today.
Go PHP5
The deadline date for this campaign - 5th February 2008 - was chosen because it reflects the latest major version number of PHP (5.2) (at least to us over here in Europe!)
They are promoting general PHP5 adoption as well as highlighting hosts implementing PHP5 and applications built using PHP5. The aim is to create enough momentum in the PHP community to switch over to the latest version.
The campaign site has some good resources for those looking to make the leap.
What is your web host doing to update their PHP versions?
If you need guidance on migrating your applications from PHP4 to PHP5 you can find it at this page on the PHP web site.
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