PHP Version?

What versions of PHP are you guys running your forums on?

I've been developing on 5.5 lately and I'd hate to release something that nobody can use, so I'm trying to get an idea of what level of language support I want to rely on.

Thanks!

 

As soon as I migrate my vb3 site to xenforo I will upgrade from php 5.3 to the latest php version.

 

5.4 and 5.5. Some of my latest code only seems to work on 5.4+ (which is truly bizarre), so that's what I'm using.

 

5.3 at the moment, probably will update to 5.5 now.

 

Hey Adrian. It depends more on who your target audience is going to be, which mainly will also be determined through what you want to release, doesn't it? I mean, if you want to release your own software and it will be for more of the power kind of user, like the people here, then you could most likely go with the highest PHP version. If it is aimed at more of the general public, you have to take shared hosting into consideration and thus work at most with 5.4.

I hope you don't mind me making a plug here, but this is actually another reason why we want to build our own platform with Skooppa. With our own platform, it doesn't matter who we sell to or rather, we aren't bound by anyone's specific limitations, like crappy shared hosting. What does matter is the price to the level of service we can deliver for that price. A totally new way of thinking. And, we can build the best of the best in our system, for instance, HHVM will be in our preliminary testing as the web server system of choice. The other will be Nginx + PHP-FPM (with one of the newest 5.5.x versions) + Opcode Cache (APC or Xcache). These two variants are found only in the best of professional PHP web sites and we will be offering it as a standard part of our platform AND it is all we need to develop for. That means we aren't tied down to having to even ask or wonder what systems customers are using and it means we are free to develop faster and with better results for that single system and ultimately, for the customer.

But back to your question, if you know what it is you are working on, that, or rather the users you are aiming to build the software for, would most likely tell you what version of PHP you need to be developing with, IMHO.

Edit- and to be totally frank, I really think you are smart enough to already know this. So, I am wondering why start this poll to begin with.(asking nicely and politely) What is going to determine the level of PHP you use isn't the people here, unless power admins are your target market and if that is the case, you'd already know pretty much the answer.

Scott

 

Hey Scott,

Thanks for your thoughts. The product is targeted at forums of all shapes and sizes. I know that most large forums end up having to upgrade or customize things more as their demands grow. The rest are typically left on crappy VPS systems running older versions of CentOS or Ubuntu. Nothing wrong with that, but unfortunately most packages are pretty old.

Most of my work is deployed to our own servers, so I'm just trying to find a nice balance for the plug-in portion of the service. It seems not many are on 5.5 yet, so maybe 5.4 is a happy medium.

Even if I wanted to support everyone, I also want people to get off older versions of PHP for other reasons. Progress is needed.

Cheers

 

Agreed! PHP needs to be less in the quagmire of old versions it seems to be stuck in and unfortunately, its own popularity seems to be the cause. Sort of a catch 22, which is simply due to "backwards compatibility" or the want to avoid hitting issues do to backward compatibility, which the PHP devs try to accomplish and do it rather well, which is a good thing.

I think if developers like you can make great products based on the newest versions of PHP and actually create demand, instead of hoping to get demand, because people are plucking along still with older versions of PHP, then there might be a chance to get PHP out of its own quagmire. But that is a tough choice for a developer to make, as we can see with you.

The other direction I'd like to see is with the PHP development itself. I'd like to see PHP6 with a bit less want for backwards compatibility. Do bolder things to make it a more modern language for todays web application development needs. Like coming up with a decent compiler, finally. You might say, that would be like them shooting themselves in the foot, but I really do believe, if done properly, with the right results (like much, much faster web page delivery), PHP 6 could take the language further into the next century, and keep it as the most popular web programming language in the world.

Scott

 

I use PHP 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5 depending on server and web app. For my Centmin Mod project, looking at dual PHP-FPM version support later on so users will be able to use different PHP versions for different web sites/web apps on the same server - something I always wanted to do

 

Interesting George. Would that require two PHP-FPM services to run at the same time?

Scott

 

Yeah 2 PHP-FPM services

 

@ eva2000. Thank you for being one of the few on VB support who is willing to help and treat customers with respect. It is refreshing to see a VB support person do such a good job. Well done and again thank you.

 

Thanks... If you folks could actually see how much effort and work all the vB support staff put in behind the scenes to ensure vB attempts to move in the right direction for customers (despite having no control over IB management decisions), you'd say the same praise for all vB support staff - particularly Wayne and Zachery. Understandably so, you don't get to see what goes on behind the curtain though. Trying to not open another can of worms here, so will leave it at that

Always great to hear feedback on Centmin Mod.. these days can't surf the web without bumping into a Centmin Mod user

 

I really understand your defense for the support team and they most likely deserve it George, but you pointing out the staff's internal hard work and effort is going proverbially to the dogs does nothing to strengthen vB's position as a viable product.

When you can point out how their hard work and effort makes a real positive difference to the product and customer community as a whole, is when you should point it out. Until that point, all comments saying, "they do a lot behind the scenes (but you don't see it)" end up making the issues worse, because that is EXACTLY the point of the issues. Customer should be seeing that effort. I think you know that actually, because you mentioned not wanting to open that can of worms. Well, the worms have been out for a long time.

Take your compliments simply with grace and run with them George. I agree, you deserve them too. Let IB's management worry about what the support team looks like overall, because it is definitely their responsibility and not really yours.

Scott

 

And, back on topic. PHP 5.6 is looking pretty good too.

Scott

 

lol that can of worms is everywhere

Let's put it this way. The statement that Oxygen in the atmosphere is good for us, doesn't negate the benefits of such Oxygen if you don't actually physically see the oxygen itself. But the absence or less Oxygen in the air would definitely be bad for us is true. Oxygen = vB staff effort behind the scenes. But I'll leave this topic with this analogy.

Yeah dual PHP-FPM will allow me to play with different PHP versions per site/domain

 

Eww, I love analogies.

Your statement is more like people are gasping for air and then you saying, "There is oxygen on Mars, but you can't see it." It is there though and the fact it is there is great, but is out of everyone's reach or sight or usefulness and that fact only makes their gasping for air more frustrating and/ or painful. LOL!

Scott

 

Just TOOO much. Is it true you hired "He who cannot be named" to do your script? This sounds so much like his script. LOL.

I am not (too) serious with this post, just joking. AL.