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xirus

Member

Registered: 2002-12-01

Posts: 113

php4 vs php5

is it somehow possible to have multiple branches of software?
eg include a new php4 package that also gets updated whenever php4 gets an upgrade?

I'm afraid php5 is going to cause me lots of problems, just like apache2 and mysql4 did... Maybe they should've got a parallel branche as well, eg apache1 and mysql3 (while the apache, php and mysql packages would contain the newest version)

Bobonov

Member

From: Roma - Italy

Registered: 2003-05-07

Posts: 295

Re: php4 vs php5

Just curiosity, why did you have problem?
Migrating apacha took me just 10 minutes, move the configuration from one http.conf to the new one and I didn't have any problem with mysql, I made a data backup before upgradin and didn't need to reimport data.
Theoretically PHP5 is completely compatible with php4.
The main difference is that now there is Zend 2 engine, object support completed and some more improvment.

xirus

Member

Registered: 2002-12-01

Posts: 113

Re: php4 vs php5

well a lot of cgi apps broke with apache2, there were also some (minor) problems with a couple of php programs

mysql also stopped working, the data was mostly preserved, except for the user part, I had to reconfigure it

so I have a bad feeling about php5

Bobonov

Member

From: Roma - Italy

Registered: 2003-05-07

Posts: 295

Re: php4 vs php5

For the moment I installed it, to be 100% sure I am testing it before  putting in production but till now no problem.

apeiro

Daddy

From: Victoria, BC, Canada

Registered: 2002-08-12

Posts: 771

Website

Re: php4 vs php5

http://www.php.net/manual/en/migration5.oop.php

Unless you were lax in your OOP habits, your php4 code should run fine.

Also, there is a compatibility switch in php.ini that supposedly makes php5 even more compatible with php4 code (though I haven't run into any compatibility issues yet).

I actually forgot to include this directive in the default php.ini, but you can add it yourself:

; Enable compatibility mode with Zend Engine 1 (PHP 4.x)
zend.ze1_compatibility_mode = On

xirus

Member

Registered: 2002-12-01

Posts: 113

Re: php4 vs php5

ok I've done it and tested a few things - they all seem to work fine

they've done a really good job on the new OOP stuff, it has really matured!
hopefully the python developers will do something similar in the future