These changes
are discussed in Chapter 2.
??? New language features and constructs: A number of new syntax features have
been added, including, most notably, a 64-bit integer type, a revamped foreach
looping construct for multidimensional arrays, and support for labeled breaks.
Some of these features are discussed in Chapter 3.
At press time, PHP??™s popularity was at a historical high. According to Netcraft, PHP
has been installed on more than 20 million domains. According to E-Soft Inc., PHP
remains the most popular Apache module, available on more than 40 percent of all
Apache installations.
So far, this chapter has discussed only version-specific features of the language.
Each version shares a common set of characteristics that play a very important role in
attracting and retaining a large user base. In the next section, you??™ll learn about these
foundational features.
?– Note You might be wondering why versions 4, 5, and 6 were mentioned in this chapter. After all,
isn??™t only the newest version relevant? While you??™re certainly encouraged to use the latest stable version,
versions 4 and 5 remain in widespread use and are unlikely to go away anytime soon. Therefore having
some perspective regarding each version??™s capabilities and limitations is a good idea, particularly if you
work with clients who might not be as keen to keep up with the bleeding edge of PHP technology.
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