PHP 8 Benefits and Changes

Due to its widespread use in powering dynamic websites on the internet, PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor - better known by its abbreviation PHP - is one of the most popular and widely used programming languages in the world. On 26th November 2020, the development team released PHP 8 after a long wait, bringing numerous changes as is typical with any software version update. This makes a quick transition to this branch interesting and worthwhile in order to take advantage of the benefits resulting from the PHP 8 web hosting update.

What is the development cycle for PHP?

Compared to other software or even industrially used operating systems, PHP has a relatively short development cycle and largely avoids the versions supported over a longer period with updates and patches for Long-Time-Support (LTS). The relatively short support period may pose a challenge for operators of Dedicated Servers or VPS hosting, as well as programmers, but it also brings concrete benefits in practical everyday use. Given that the programming language is often used extensively in security-critical areas with sensitive data, a swift update to new versions like PHP 8 is in your own interest. Here we have compiled current web hosting plans with PHP 8 for you.

The new Major Release PHP 8.0.0 was released at the end of 2020 after about four years of development, thus following the team's desired interval of three to four years between version jumps. Support for the initial releases of the old version has already been discontinued - for PHP 7.0 at the end of 2017, for 7.1 in December 2019, and 7.2 reached End-Of-Life (EOL) status in November 2020. Therefore, it is highly recommended to start using PHP 8 early in a test environment to allow sufficient time for migration and resolving any incompatibilities. You can determine your current PHP version here.

What are the innovations in PHP 8?

With the transition to PHP 8, the possibilities for web developers to write efficient, clear, and performant code have significantly expanded. Some of the key new features include:

• Introduction of a Just-in-Time (JIT) Compiler for entire code blocks
• Improved syntax for property declaration and enhanced object ergonomics
• Type error reporting for internal functions
• New classification of warnings and error messages by the PHP engine
• Changed definition for reflections
• Performance improvements with and without JIT Compiler
• Possibility to use Union Types as in C, C++, or TypeScript
• WeakMaps in addition to WeakRefs for better resource management
• Automatic declaration of classes with the __toString() method as Stringable Interfaces

While most of the innovations primarily affect programmers rather than end users, the latter also benefit from the new PHP 8 version. Specifically, the improved performance and efficient resource management such as memory usage bring tangible benefits that inevitably impact productive systems in everyday use.

What problems can arise from outdated code?

As with any major version upgrade to a new release, outdated functions were also removed in PHP 8 to ensure and enhance security, efficiency, and clarity in the long term. This affects routines that were already marked as deprecated in the previous version PHP 7.4, leading to corresponding warnings during execution. Therefore, a simple check of the log files or an interactive test in verbose error mode is sufficient to identify any potential issues and incompatibilities. Primarily, outdated software such as unmaintained plugins are affected - major content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, Contao, or TYPO3 generally pay attention to early updates of their source code.

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