Just like with perl it doesn't matter. 5.3 is a major release for php and 5.10 was a major release for perl. but everyone looks at that shiny first number... not the second one. that's like saying there've been no major improvements to linux since 2.6.0 people just aren't paying attention to what the versions actually mean and what features come out.

5.3 marks the beginning of PHPs decline. There have been too many blunders in the last development cycle. Foremost the introction of the backslash syntax will bring with it, a huge *backslash* from serious developers. It's seldomly a good idea to piss of the professional parts of the community.
(I bet Microsoft bloody well understood this, and had some influence with php.net, Zend and in these events.)

There is however room for forks or alternative implementations now (e.g Quercus or Parrot). Maybe that might save PHP as a leading open source language platform. I wouldn't hold my breath for "PHP6" though.

Actually, I think PHP 6 does matter a great deal. The hype and expectation levels in the industry have reached the point where PHP without a meaningful Version 6 is seriously starting to lose credibility, let alone sustainability of the existing buildup. How many "PHP 6" books have been brought out, in reasonably good faith, by writers and publishers who were convinced that a crucially important release was imminent? How many shops have put off migrating their existing PHP 4 dreck to PHP 5.2+, in the belief that it would be more prudent to wait for the "imminent" release of PHP 6? How did the industry read so much more into the Perpetual Hype Platform (and I've written in and about PHP since the very early days) without some degree of encouragement from Zend?

Five years ago, even two years ago, when new or wannabe Web devs asked me what language they should pick up after HTML and JavaScript, I always said "PHP". THere's always been a great deal of hype, but in the 4.x up to 5.2 days, that hype was largely justified by the dramatic improvements in the language and platform. Several people - like my clients - see PHP 5.3 as a "we've got to throw something over the wall - the natives are getting restless" release; with some nice features (closures, function objects) and some seriously not-ready-for-prime-time misfires (the namespaces train wreck). Sure, a lot of the PHP media are spinning the comparison to Perl, where a Version 6 is even more mythical and legendary...and will likely never ship to anything like the audience the language has today. PHP has a lot of things to learn from perl - antipatterns, primarily.

So now, inquisitive/aggressive devs are looking for other languages to use for their apps. Flash is enjoying a resurgence less of its own making than of squandered opportunities by others. There are loads of teams trying to write the Next Big Thing in JavaScript, HTML 5 and CSS 3; cool toys, and practical in intranets, where there's iron control over the clients, but hardly a set-the-world-on-fire-in-2010 possibility.

Python? Now we're getting someplace. Mature, consistent language, strong community with solid leadership that seems more focused on doing things right for everybody than selling commercial support for their own inscrutable tools, and supported all over the place. If PHP doesn't pick up the innovation ball again and run like the wind, the world will stop waiting, and go to languages that actually deliver.

PHP 6 in 2012 or 2013 will not matter The uptake will be comparable to those programming Web apps in RPG IV now; hardly a world-beater. That book on standards-driven Web development using PHP that I've been working on for over a year may well never get finished; I'm seriously considering/discussing whether or not to feature a different language. I'd really rather not do that; PHP has been good to me for years, and I have greatly enjoyed most of my work with the language. But if PHP well and truly has jumped the shark with 5.3, that may be a foregone conclusion. Drop into your favourite geek bookstore sometime and browse the number of RPG or FORTRAN books being sold, compared to the top five languages - or the top 20. Look at what languages were popular for software 10 or 15 years ago and why they fell out of fashion.

PHP, do you really want to be the next Delphi?

i think long lasting buildings need good fundaments.

same for software.

and php lacks proper fundaments, a philosophy. now it is a completely incoherent box of junk that is still widely used because it is widely used.

i think if php was started today it would have no impact, especially in comparison to ruby/python/scheme/lua.

I've been using PHP for a long time and I must say things are starting to look like its taking a downturn. In fact I think the only thing keeping it afloat is the huge library of FOSS software built on it. You can talk about all the other technologies out there and they may be fine to build something from scratch. But what about when the job just calls for a CMS or blogging solution to be set up. You aren't going to build from scratch everytime and the industry standards are in PHP.

I agree with one poster and believe solutions like Quercus could be the doorway out. It gives you the ability to bring PHP onto a platform where many other technologies can live as well (JRuby, Jython, Groovy, Java etc.). You can build new things on the more modern platforms but still stand up a standard PHP CMS. If any one of these other technologies starts to gain the library of PHP I imagine it will start to take over. Personally I'm pulling for Groovy for being so directly linked and interchangeable with Java.

5.3 took long enough to come out, I seem to remember it coming out a good 6 months later than they said. Still, well worth the wait.

All this whining about versions? Who cares? What's relevant are the features available in the language. With 5.3, you have full-blown unicode support. Anybody care to enlighten me as to what features PHP is missing?

PHP is STILL the most flexible language in the market. Want to write scripts inline with HTML? Go for it. Want to write procedural style? It's there. Want OO? It's there. Want to write some snazy comet app working with JS on the client side? Easy as pie. Database abstraction? Yup. They even implemented a goto for retards coming from BASIC so that even they could feel at home.

PHP let's you code the way you want to code, instead of forcing you down some moronic path. There was only one reason I chose PHP. Flexibility. That's still true today.