By now everyone should be aware that PHP 5 is readily available for everyone.
Php 5.2.9 has been released last month. And the very first version of PHP 5 was available somewhere in 2004. That’s 5 years ago. It’s about time you update if you haven’t already. PHP 4 was discontinued on January 3, 2008. So if you’re still on PHP 4 you’re a year behind in software.
I write this post, because i do not use PHP 4 anymore. I haven’t for some time. And i don’t keep track of which functions work for PHP 4 or PHP 5. Lately i see quite often that my plugins do not work correctly on PHP 4. And people complain. Logically. But it’s your *own* fault, really. However, i do realize that many of you do not know what version you have. You can check it on your administration panel your webhost offers, probably somewhere at the server information or apache signature. If you’re still on PHP 4, ask them to enable/install/upgrade to PHP 5. If they refuse, well, change webhosts as soon as you can. You should not be denied the latest technology or the use of my plugins ;).
Keep in mind, some companies/individuals still believe that PHP 5 is not ready. That it has some compatibility issues with older PHP scripts and that it just *isn’t as good* as PHP 4. As for compatibility, don’t worry about WordPress. If you have scripts that do not work on PHP 5, update them. PHP 3 etc is very old fashioned anyway… Even worse than PHP 4. PHP 5 not being ready? Another “myth”. If it wasn’t ready, it wouldn’t be released. Or as a beta at best. This is not the case. Of course in the end it depends on what you do, what your point of view is, too. But let me assure you that i never had any issues switching from PHP 4 to 5. Everything works, stable, reliable and best of all. All the new stuff works too! And PHP 4, well old things stay behind… And, in cases like this, are best left behind.
Get the latest and greatest of PHP here: http://www.php.net/downloads.php
Some pointers on upgrading PHP 4 to PHP 5: http://www.php.net/manual/en/faq.migration5.php
On another note; the lot of you probably cannot upgrade PHP by yourselves. If you’re on a hosting service in most cases you need your webhost to do it for you or use their software/admin panels! Wrong installations can and will harm your server. Read the manuals and look up tutorials if you do not know how to do it.
I cannot, and will not, help you upgrade PHP (or any part of your server for that matter), your administrator or webhost can and should. If you’re an admin yourself, you should be capable of doing it yourself. If you cannot, don’t pretend to be a server administrator.
