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PHP 8.5

(stitcher.io)
202 points brentroose | 2 comments | 20 Nov 25 06:07 UTC | HN request time: 0.461s | source
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darkamaul ◴[20 Nov 25 09:16 UTC] No.45990664[source]▶
PHP's evolution since PHP 5 has been substantial, and I think this is a real problem. As someone who learned the language years ago, the pace of change (generics, attributes, match expressions, typed properties) makes modern codebases genuinely difficult to follow.

I suspect this affects many developers who cut their teeth on PHP but haven't kept up. The language has become a different beast, which is a strength for the community but a barrier to re-entry.

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pjmlp ◴[20 Nov 25 09:54 UTC] No.45990949[source]▶
This is true for most languages though, compare C# 14 with C# 1.0, Java 25 with Java 1.0, C 23 (plus common compiler extensions) with K&R C,....
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ffsm8 ◴[20 Nov 25 10:32 UTC] No.45991209[source]▶
I think he's thinking more along the lines of PHP 5-8.5

That version 1-latest is understandingly highly different, but these are all decades old languages, which barely changed for some time, but are now all introducing new syntax.

Which I think makes sense, but it's obviously going to leave 9-5 devs behind that don't particularly care for coding and want to invest as little time as possible into their language knowledge.

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1. rytis ◴[20 Nov 25 11:24 UTC] No.45991499[source]▶
And what exactly 9-5 has to do with caring for coding or time investment in language learning?
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2. monooso ◴[20 Nov 25 13:16 UTC] No.45992238[source]▶
Not GP, but I assume the suggestion is that it's difficult to stay abreast of new developments within the constraints of a typical work day. Especially if your job utilises older technologies, as most do.