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62 lines
4.1 KiB
PHP
62 lines
4.1 KiB
PHP
<html><head><title>Why BETA?</title>
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<? $title="Why BETA?";
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include "include/header.inc"; ?>
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<h2>Why BETA?</h2>
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or
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<h2>When is PHP 3.0 going to be as stable as PHP/FI 2.0?</h2>
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<p>This is probably one of the biggest questions one considers before upgrading. Especially in production sites,
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nobody wants to find out that the scripts that used to run fine until the upgrade suddenly stopped working, or
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worse, cause the server to crash.
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<p>Fortunately, the answer is that PHP 3.0 is never going to be as stable as PHP/FI 2.0, because PHP/FI 2.0 is
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never going to reach the stability of PHP 3.0. PHP 3.0 and PHP/FI 2.0 are different by design and approach.
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Lessons learned from defficiencies in PHP/FI 2.0 were implemented in this complete rewrite. The core language
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parser is literally all new, designed and written from scratch to be more efficient, and more importantly, much
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more reliable and stable. In addition, the new design made implementing new language features such as lists,
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for loops and more powerful functions feasable.
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<p>Apart of the language core, a lot of new functions have been added, which also contribute to making PHP 3.0
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the most powerful web development tool around. More than half of the SQL drivers have been rewritten from scratch
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to use the new powerful features that PHP 3.0 offers, like persistent links to the server, and were added
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a lot of functionality that makes them more efficient and easier to use.
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<p>Under Windows, PHP 3.0 features a native Microsoft Visual C++ port, identical to the UNIX version in features
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and stability (compiles out of the same source tree). PHP 3.0 will soon offer a native IIS module (via ISAPI)
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and NSAPI module under the Win32 environment as well.
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<p>So, if it's so good, why is it tagged as BETA when you can get PHP/FI 2.0 final release and avoid trouble with
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beta software? The answer is simple. PHP 3.0 is tagged as BETA simply because we can't be sure it's as stable
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as we think it is, before it is widely used by many people in 'real life' situations long enough. Even though
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we don't think that would happen, especially after the 6 weeks long alpha test, we want to be sure that the new code
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runs on all hardware setups PHP/FI 2.0 ran on and performs well on each and every script. As soon as
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the designated BETA test period ends, and assuming that no fatal party-crashing bugs are found, the current BETA
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with minor updates and bugfixes will be tagged as the final release. The final release for PHP 3.0 should be expected
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within the next couple of months.
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<h2>Who should use PHP 3.0 and who should still use PHP/FI 2.0?</h2>
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<p>New users should now begin with PHP 3.0. It is now definite that PHP 3.0 is going to replace PHP/FI 2.0, and no
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further development is planned on the PHP/FI 2.0 core.
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<p>Regarding users of PHP/FI 2.0, not everybody should take the time and upgrade to PHP 3.0 (especially since it does require some time, as this
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isn't a 100% downwards compatible upgrade). The approach that should apply here is "if it ain't broke don't fix it".
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That means that if you have a site, designed with PHP/FI 2.0, that works fine, takes the load well and doesn't
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give you any trouble - you might as well stay with it. PHP 3.0 can't give you something better than that already
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perfect situation.
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<p>Just about everybody else should begin migrating to PHP 3.0. Bug reports are likely to be solved quicker than bugs
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in PHP/FI 2.0 (the development team of PHP 3.0 contains 6 people, and the code is much easier to fix) and more
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importantly, the new implementation is much less prone to bugs. The efficiency of the new language implementation
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is much better, which means that the load of a PHP 3.0 based site is roughly 35% of the load of a PHP/FI 2.0 based site.
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And of course, you're presented with a whole new set of powerful tools and language features that were not available
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in PHP/FI 2.0.
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<p>More information about the new PHP 3.0 features and changes from PHP/FI 2.0 are described in the
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<a href="changes.php3">changes</a> file. Answers to several frequently asked questions can be found in the
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<a href="FAQ.php3">FAQ</a>.
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<?include "include/footer.inc"; ?>
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