Windows XP and 2003 support dropped in PHP 5.5

PHP 5.5 released on June 20, 2013

[coopster]

I think the biggest news is in the title and it impacts Windows users. You can see the rest of the changelog [php.net] and the migration guide [php.net] on the PHP site.

The key features of PHP 5.5.0 include:

• Added generators [php.net] and coroutines.
  
• Added the finally [php.net] keyword.
  
• Added a simplified password hashing API [php.net].
  
• Added support for constant array/string dereferencing [php.net].
  
• Added scalar class name resolution via ::class [php.net].
  
• Added support for using empty() on the result of function calls and other expressions [php.net].
  
• Added support for non-scalar Iterator keys in foreach [php.net].
  
• Added support for list() constructs in foreach statements [php.net].
  
• Added the Zend OPcache [php.net] extension for opcode caching.
  
• The GD library has been upgraded to version 2.1 adding new functions and improving existing functionality.
  
• A lot more improvements and fixes.
  

[jatar_k]

about time really, windows installs have always been sketchy

I was most interested with the hashing and empty on function returns

[coopster]

The hashing part is a bit confusing to me, unless I am misunderstanding it. Let's say I start using this function and store the hashed password in the database. Over the course of time, PHP decides to update the default hashing algo. I get a user from days of old trying to login and I compare the logged in password with the hashed algo using the new hash from the latest PHP release -- they are not going to match! Am I missing something?

[coopster]

Never mind, I see it now on the password_verify() function:

Note that password_hash() returns the algorithm, cost and salt as part of the returned hash. Therefore, all information that's needed to verify the hash is included in it. This allows the verify function to verify the hash without needing separate storage for the salt or algorithm information.

[jatar_k]

I find it interesting they are pulling that in at all, saving the noobs again I guess ;)

[coopster]

Note that the original MySQL extension is deprecated in this release:

[us1.php.net...]


ext/mysql deprecation

The original MySQL extension is now deprecated, and will generate E_DEPRECATED errors when connecting to a database. Instead, use the MySQLi or PDO_MySQL extensions.

[coopster]

and the /e modifier for preg_replace() has also been deprecated (it's on that page too). I ran into this recently and had to write a callback instead. Although it can seem like an inconvenience at first, the changes were made for security reasons. But I did find that there is an upside in that the code is easier to read :)

  // convert all UPPERCASE data to lowercase and then capitalize first 
  // words; also account for words after special characters 
  function fmtString($v) 
  { 
    return preg_replace_callback( 
      "/([[:^alnum:]]+)([[:alpha:]])/", 
      // PHP < 5.3.0 
      create_function('$m', 'return $m[1].strtoupper($m[2]);'), 
      // PHP >= 5.3.0 
      //function ($m) { 
        //return $m[1].strtoupper($m[2]); 
      //}, 
      ucwords(strtolower(trim($v))) 
    ); 
  } 
  print fmtString('HELLO WORLD!'); // Hello World! 
  print fmtString('hello-world!'); // Hello World! 

[davekimble]

What exactly does "Windows XP and 2003 support dropped" mean for someone like me running Win XP?
Does it mean nobody will help if it doesn't work?
Or does it mean it won't work at all?- it doesn't seem to.
Can it be manually tuned to work?

[coopster]

No, you will still be able to get help from developers. It means your upgrade path and security patches are over with at this release level. You can still run an older version of PHP on the OS.

Windows XP and 2003 support dropped

Support for Windows XP and 2003 has been dropped. Windows builds of PHP now require Windows Vista or newer.

[php.net...]