PHP 6 Preview Unicode Perhaps the greatest addition to PHP 6 will be the integration of unicode support. A runtime switch in php.ini will be provided to enable or disable Unicode semantics. This default will be set to "On". When the Unicode runtime switch is set to "Off" Unicode features will still be accessable. Two string type, binary and string will be available for use. This will mean filenames can also have UTF-16 characters in them also. A downside to Unicode is that the $string[] operator will not be effective as the Unicode implementation uses 2 or 4 bytes per character. This makes it impossible to guess string position. Much more work will be done in this arena, so features in PHP 6 may come and go. Unicode will stay, but the implementation may change. Register globals is gone register_globals() has had a dogged history and looked doomed from the outset. Poor coding practices in userland made application insecure. This was, in part, the catylist for the SUPER GLOBALS array. register_globals() is currently Off by default in preference of the SUPER GLOBALS and in PHP 6 we see it finally put to rest. Should PHP 6 encounter a register_globals setting, or when starting PHP it will throw an E_CORE_ERROR. Other functions that depend on register_globals will also disappear. These include session_register, session_unregister and session_is_registered. Magic quotes gone This feature has not been evil but has been tiresome for coders who have had to guess or work around issues related to wether this was turned On or Off in php.ini. So much in the same way as register_globals is being removed, magic_quotes will join it. Again an E_CORE_ERROR will will be thrown should a magic_quotes, magic_quotes_sybase or magic_quotes_gpc setting be detected. Safe mode support dropped Safe Mode is a feature that same GID/UID as the initiating script. This has cause much grief and so is joining the list of the features to be scrapped. Safe Mode sends the wrong message to coders and leads them to use this feature as a security measure. This is not what if was designed for and when detected now will throw an E_CORE_ERROR mentioning the use of open_basedir(). PCRE reigns PHP Currently supports two regex engines, PCRE and EREG. PHP 6 could see the addition of ICU also and this will make things rather crowded in regex land. PCRE has won the day and will see the demise of EREG as it is no longer bundled. An EREG extension may become avaialble but the core PCRE extension will not be allowed to be disabled. File Info Added PHP has no real mime detection. The mime_magic extention exists but is a little flakey and a FileInfo package is available in PECL. This will be moved to the core and enabled by default. This will see the demise of the mime_magic extension and good riddance. 64 bit integers The 32 bit model has long been a restriction for many coders and the addition of a 64 bit integer paves the way for code such as this:
<?php
function checkNum($integer){
if(!IS_INT64($integer)
{
(int64) $integer;
}
return $integer;
}
?>
<?php
for ($i = 0; $i < 9; $i++)
{
if (true)
{
break foo;
}
echo "this is never shown";
foo:
echo 'Iteration: '.$i.'<br />';
}
?>
<?php
namespace spl{
class file
{
}
}
?>
<?php
function myErrorHandler($errorType, $message){
if ($errorType == E_NOTICE)
{
throw new Exception( $message, $errorType);
}
}
set_error_handler('myErrorHandler');
/**
*
* Throws a notice
*
*/
echo $new;
?>
<?php
$var = 'foo';
?>
Some text or other stuff here
<?=$var?>
Some have suggested the use of other implentations such as
<?php=$var?>