[RFC|Merged] Require PHP 5.3

[Oleg]

I posted the announcement, it is now pending approval.

[brunoais]

^
approval?
You cannot post announcements without approval?

[MichaelC]

^
approval?
You cannot post announcements without approval?

All team members can create new announcements but it requires approval by a manager (as in permissions approval, not verbal approval).

Oleg is only a release manager, not a member of the management team.

[DavidIQ]

I posted the announcement, it is now pending approval.

Meant to say it last night but...approved.

[naderman]

Stats for 3.0.10 to date:

Code: Select all

4.3: <  1.0%
4.4:    2.5%
5.0: <  1.0%
5.1:    1.2%
5.2:   56.9%
5.3:   39.0%
5.4: <  1.0%

Stats for 3.0.8:

Code: Select all

4.3: < 1.0%
4.4:   4.2%
5.0: < 1.0%
5.1:   2.2%
5.2:  67.6%
5.3:  25.5%

Based on this, I think it's fair to assume that by the time 3.1 is released, 5.3 and 5.4 will make up a large majority of our users' platforms. Certainly enough to simply force the rest to upgrade their PHP to 5.3 if they want to update to phpBB 3.1. Do keep in mind that we will continue to support 3.0.x for a while after the release 3.1 as well. So I really do not see a problem with requiring PHP 5.3 at all.

Brief update, as I compiled this data for a discussion in PHP internals. The stats for everyone who sent us data in the last 3 months:

Code: Select all

4.3: < 1.0%
4.4:   1.9%
5.0: < 1.0%
5.1: < 1.0%
5.2:  49.4%
5.3:  46.2%
5.4:   1.4%

Looks like we're on a good path to sufficient 5.3 support by the time of final release.

[jamesbond22]

The php version 5.3 will reach EOL status in March 2013.
Maybe is it better to choose for php 5.4+

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.4.10 and PHP 5.3.20. These releases fix about 15 bugs. Please note that the PHP 5.3 series will enter an end of life cycle and receive only critical fixes as of March 2013. All users of PHP are encouraged to upgrade to PHP 5.4.

[brunoais]

There are many hosting companies like x10hosting that are a pain before they upgrade. Better stay as 5.3, if possible.

[Oleg]

We choose to require a certain minimum version because of features added in that version. Until we want to use something that is only present in 5.4 there is no reason to require it.