Which PHP version?

PHP
1

Hello, my name is Tom and I am helping my wife build a website to sell T-shirts.

I am new to LAMP.

What is the best version of PHP to use?

Is everyone using 5.x?

Isn’t there a v6.x?

Thanks,

Tom

2

I would advise sticking (and keeping up-to-date) with the current stable version. Currently that is PHP 5.3.2.

No, not yet.

3

I second Salathe’s comment.

All I could add is that adding an unstable version isn’t a great idea if you’re new to LAMP.

PHP 6 is a long way away yet, unfortunately. PHP5.3 is only (relatively) recent, and that bought out quite a few interesting changes.

4

If your live hosting is running a slightly earlier version of PHP 5 then you might want to run the same version on your own computer. Otherwise the latest stable version of PHP 5 as previously suggested is the best option.

5

Jake,

What are the major changes to PHP 5.3 that didn’t exist in v5.0 and so on?

Anything a newbie to PHP should know or worry about?

(I know that PHP 5 introduced OOP which was a major change.)

Thanks,

TomTees

6

PHP 5 change log

Migrating from PHP 4 to PHP 5.0.x and [url=“http://www.php.net/manual/en/migration5.changes.php”]What is changed in PHP 5.0.x
Migrating from PHP 5.0.x to PHP 5.1.x and [url=“http://www.php.net/manual/en/migration51.changes.php”]Key 5.1.x features
Migrating from PHP 5.1.x to PHP 5.2.x and [url=“http://www.php.net/manual/en/migration52.changes.php”]What has changed in PHP 5.2.x
Migrating from PHP 5.2.x to PHP 5.3.x and [url=“http://www.php.net/manual/en/migration53.changes.php”]What has changed in PHP 5.3.x