PHP 7 has been released

[Posted December 3, 2015 by jake]

From:		"Zeev Suraski, Zend" <newsletter-AT-zend.com>
To:		lwn-AT-lwn.net
Subject:		It's official! PHP 7 is now GA
Date:		Thu, 3 Dec 2015 16:13:22 -0600 (CST)
Message-ID:		<1221504849.1318699858.1449180802989.JavaMail.root@abmas01.marketo.org>

Today, we're pleased to announce that PHP 7.0 – the fastest and most efficient PHP ever– is
officially released!

PHP 7.0 brings you unprecedented levels of real-world performance and throughput by utilizing the
new and advanced Zend Engine 3.0, designed and refactored for speed and reduced memory consumption.
This translates to real-world benefits: greatly decreased response times, superior user
experiences, and the ability to serve more users with fewer servers to maximize the power of your
PHP 7.0 deployment. 

The explosive performance improvements of PHP 7.0 range between 50% and 200% on real-world apps –
without changing a single line of code:

- Drupal 8 – 77% performance gains
 - WordPress 4 – 129% performance gains
 - Laraval 5 test app – 111% better performance
 - Magento – 74% better performance
 (all comparisons made between PHP 5.6.10 and PHP 7.0.0)

PHP 7.0 also uses much less memory thanks to the compact data structures and the highly-refactored
codebase of Zend Engine 3.0. Memory consumption gains between 30% and 50% are commonly realized,
allowing you to serve more concurrent users without adding additional server hardware.

If light-speed PHP isn’t enough, you’ll be happy to know that PHP 7.0 comes with many new
features, including Return Type Declarations, Scalar Type Hints, Anonymous Classes, and even a
SpaceShip Operator! Check out our PHP 7 Resources page
http://info.zend.com/p0400L05zC0r0srXjA08PW0.  More details are available here :
http://info.zend.com/tjC80r0WLP0AA00rX40005t

Start your journey now
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The best way to evaluate PHP 7.0 is Zend Server for PHP 7.0, now available as a Technology Preview.
Installing the preview lets you experience the new PHP with minimal hassle and without worrying
about build environments or library dependencies. You'll get the full, extensive PHP stack with
dozens of extensions out of the box and the next-generation Z-Ray developer's dashboard built right
in. 

Check out our PHP 7 Resources page http://info.zend.com/p0400L05zC0r0srXjA08PW0 and then download
the Zend Server Tech Preview to get a feel for what PHP 7.0 offers.
http://info.zend.com/HL0000r0r8EPWC40A5X00xj
And remember, you're not alone. Watch, read, and learn from the experts below or talk to us
directly – we've already helped many teams get ready for PHP 7. 

Our team of ElePHPants had some fun creating their take on the news. Check it out!
http://info.zend.com/y5WLPr8r0j0ACXG04N00000

 - Download Zend Server PHP 7 tech preview 
  http://info.zend.com/p0400L05zC0r0srXjA08PW0
 - Learn more at DevZone: Getting started, Starting your migration, Setting up your PHP 7
environment
  http://info.zend.com/AW0O04LX00rj58r00A0H0PC
 - See the complete list of updates at php.net
  http://info.zend.com/tjC80r0WLP0AA00rX40005t

Happy PHPing,

Zeev Suraski
CTO and co-founder
Zend, A Rogue Wave Company

to post comments

PHP 7 has been released

Posted Dec 4, 2015 8:06 UTC (Fri) by torquay (guest, #92428) [Link] (8 responses)

This translates to real-world benefits: greatly decreased response times, superior user experiences, and the ability to serve more users with fewer servers

It also translates to greatly decreased response times in exploiting the daily vulnerabilities caused by the brilliant PHP language ~~design~~ hodgepodge. No, that's still too charitable. Along with Flash, PHP is a crime against humanity. There is simply no way to fix it.

PHP 7 has been released

Posted Dec 4, 2015 13:33 UTC (Fri) by flammon (guest, #807) [Link]

Besides the speed boost, it's quite the clean up. Check out the reference

PHP 7 has been released

Posted Dec 4, 2015 16:15 UTC (Fri) by yodermk (subscriber, #3803) [Link]

Heh. That might be a bit harsh, but I don't disagree. A long time ago I was paid to write PHP, and for the next decade or more it was still my go-to tool for putting quick things up on the web. Today, I don't want it anywhere near my servers.

Sure, you *can* write good or bad PHP, just like any language. But PHP has so many more gotchas, configuration craziness, and security problems. Making an "easy" way to mix HTML and server-side code, as opposed to installing an application server, was a bad idea from the start.

I guess ease of getting started and cheap web hosting plans are keeping it alive. I just can't fathom why people are still using it for enterprise work.

PHP 7 has been released

Posted Dec 6, 2015 19:27 UTC (Sun) by isotopp (subscriber, #99763) [Link] (5 responses)

If you think that language and language design matters when it comes to code quality you are cordially invited to review the codebase of neutron and nova in Openstack. This is pure python, and according to you it should be a joy to read.

Please bring a spare set of eyes, because I guarantee that you will scratch out the two you have once you read that code.

PHP 7 has been released

Posted Dec 6, 2015 20:31 UTC (Sun) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link] (4 responses)

It's possible to write crap code in any language. Nobody is disputing that. So thanks for the strawman, but your argument isn't going to fly.

The dispute is that PHP itself is bad code.

PHP 7 has been released

Posted Dec 7, 2015 2:59 UTC (Mon) by h2 (guest, #27965) [Link] (3 responses)

There's no dispute, that implies that anyone outside these types of circles cares what the whiners against php think or say. I can assure you, we don't. I read the so called criticisms that are frequently cited and just find them pathetic, sad excuses for reasoning that really are just complicated ways to say "I like this set of features, I don't like this other one". Grade school logic masquerading as engineering data of great importance, but geeks are good at that, aren't they? Helps to care about sutff that doesn't matter. I just read the PHP release notes, and found myself filled with contentment to having picked this language so long ago for all the right reasons. Reasons never violated by the PHP group. What pleasure in this day and age to be able to use such good tools, made by people just like me for people just like me. And good for facebook in helping make it better yet. And to deliver results fast, which somehow every one of our competitors in a multibillion dollar industry can't figure out how to match. Probably scared off by the estimates to do so by these same 'professional' guys, is my guess. Or maybe smart people know the language is the least of ones concerns?

I do understand that 'entperprise' programmers have a lot of pressure to maintain the illusion that they have a trade, and to try to believe that the high development costs that create those salaries actually have justifications beyond some fictions or other, and to try to maintain their livelihood by pretending that their own language of choice (mysteriously never mentioned by those who criticize PHP) is of course the perfect solution. I also understand why that mystical language that is better in every way is never mentioned, or almost never, it's hard to mention something that doesn't exist.

The role of the language in what I do is so minor, and the role of the logic and core research and understanding so great, that the pretense that the language choice makes much difference is just that, a pretense. Cute, self indulging, but still sort of pathetic to me, but whatever, if that's what it takes to make someone feel they have a valuable trade and skill, so be it I guess, I'm glad I don't have that nonsensical stuff filling my head, all we care about is being first, and getting the solutions running in days, not months, and having that code run for as long as we want it to run. In the greater scheme of things, or even middling, programming languages don't even register, nor will they ever, but it's easy to see why one wants to believe such things matter, after all, a wasted life is still wasted, and money won't buy it back. I'm glad I didn't waste all of mine in that way, and PHP let me keep some at least of the non trivial world afloat. My eternal gratitude to Rasmus and company for letting humans voices be heard in the morass of the dead souls. A skill so rare and uncommon in the tech world, it's one to be cherished, as I do.

So no, there's no debate at all.

PHP 7 has been released

Posted Dec 7, 2015 4:14 UTC (Mon) by torquay (guest, #92428) [Link]

... the role of the logic and core research and understanding so great, that the pretense that the language choice makes much difference is just that, a pretense.

Sorry, I'm going to have to call bullshit on this one. The likelihood of writing code riddled with hidden security bugs is much greater in PHP than, say, Python.

If you don't care about security and maintainability (technical debt), sure, you can certainly quickly write things in PHP so they appear to implement the business logic properly. But you're also risking all your customer data (credit cards, addresses, et al) and internal data (strategy discussions) being stolen, all because you forgot to take into account one of the bazillion gotchas in PHP. Apart from the black hats, all the three-letter agencies will be forever be grateful for PHP. From a business point of view, PHP is a quantifiable risk that's simply not worth taking in both the short-term and long-term. Arguing otherwise indicates a very short-sighted view of security and maintenance costs.

PHP 7 has been released

Posted Dec 7, 2015 8:47 UTC (Mon) by jond (subscriber, #37669) [Link]

I enjoyed that, thanks, although probably for all the wrong reasons.

PHP 7 has been released

Posted Dec 7, 2015 14:28 UTC (Mon) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link]

> There's no dispute, that implies that anyone outside these types of circles cares what the whiners against php think or say. I can assure you, we don't.

It doesn't imply anything of the sort. Whether or not that statement is true is certainly questionable, but it's not relevant to the discussion.

> So no, there's no debate at all.

There is a debate. You can see that from the 3 or so posts from above. Most every time PHP gets mentioned anywhere you get the same sort of statements.

If it's not something you find relevant or important then that's something else entirely. Just because you believe such a discussion is beneath you is not really a determining factor in it's existence. Just don't participate if you are not interested in it.

> (mysteriously never mentioned by those who criticize PHP)

They are mentioned quite often and I am sure that if you asked people would happily give you examples. Generally speaking the traditional alternatives are going to be Python, Perl and sometimes Java. Nowadays you have also Node.js, Scala, and Go; which are the modern webdev and infrastructure darlings created by large web-centric businesses.

Personally I am curious if PHP7 has managed to undo much of the problems that plagued it and created it's negative image from the PHP5 days.

Unsubscribe ?

Posted Dec 4, 2015 12:52 UTC (Fri) by meuh (guest, #22042) [Link] (1 responses)

Perhaps the mail should have been a little redacted to remove the link to unsubscribe ...

This email was sent to lwn@lwn.net. If you no longer wish to receive these emails you may
unsubscribe here:
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Oops :)

Unsubscribe ?

Posted Dec 4, 2015 15:18 UTC (Fri) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link]

Oops indeed, we normally try to catch stuff like that. Edited now; we'll worry about resubscribing later :)

Full Circle

Posted Dec 4, 2015 21:20 UTC (Fri) by pboddie (guest, #50784) [Link]

Zend, A Rogue Wave Company

Amusing! I remember having to write CGI programs in C++ using Rogue Wave's classes almost twenty years ago.

PHP 7 has been released

Posted Dec 5, 2015 20:57 UTC (Sat) by cyperpunks (subscriber, #39406) [Link]

Congrats!