PHP 5 Beta 1

Sterling Hughes writes "The PHP development community is proud to announce the release of PHP 5 Beta 1. Downloads are available in both source and binary form (for Windows users). A full list of changes is available in the ChangeLog. Some of the new features include much improved OO support, completely revamped XML support, and the default inclusion of SQLite."

Comments

They pulled MySQL out!

[baptiste]

Check this:

Due to issues surrounding the MySQL 4.0 license, the MySQL are no longer bundled with PHP. For more information on these licensing changes, please refer to the MySQL Licensing Policy.

Wow - that's not a smart move. I guess this is a GPL (MySQL) vs Apache (PHP) license issue? Anyone have more details?

Turning into Java?

[alannon]

Take a look at the OO changes page. The syntax seems to be converging with Java. I find this amusing in some ways.

Requires Microsoft Visual C++

[yerricde]

MySQL isn't bundled with it, but you can easily add it yourself when compiling.

Compiling?

Compiling PHP for Windows requires the Microsoft Visual C++ compiler version 6.0 or later.

The Microsoft Visual C++ optimizing compiler version 6.0 or later is available only from Microsoft as part of Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, which costs $1,079 for one non-academic seat. (Microsoft no longer sells a Visual C++ optimizing compiler separately.)

Some people are bound to bring up the $109 Microsoft Visual C++ Learning Edition, but 1. the EULA attached to its library probably does not permit distribution of generated binaries nor public performance (i.e. use on a public web site) of generated binaries, and 2. because it does not have an optimizer, the speed of generated binaries is closer to that of an interpreted program than to that of a compiled program.

If I had any spare time, I'd fix this by porting the build to MinGW.