[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #33381: Strategize the updating of minimum PHP version.

[WordPress Trac]

#33381: Strategize the updating of minimum PHP version.
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 Reporter:  alexander.rohmann                    |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement                          |      Status:  closed
 Priority:  normal                               |   Milestone:
Component:  General                              |     Version:
 Severity:  normal                               |  Resolution:  maybelater
 Keywords:  needs-codex dev-feedback 2nd-        |     Focuses:
  opinion                                        |
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Comment (by TimothyBlynJacobs):

 > Does WP have the right to enforce PHP 5.3+ when none of its code
 actually requires it?

 Here is the thing. No one ''needs'' newer versions of PHP. You can code
 around most of the new features. However, the resulting code isn't very
 nice. It is hard to read and hard to maintain. For WordPress core this
 frankly isn't a huge issue, because there already is a massive amount of
 technical debt that core contributors graciously bear for end users.

 However, plugin authors don't have that luxury. Many of us don't have
 massive teams of dedicated people who can support that technical debt. As
 such, the benefits of newer versions of PHP are very beneficial. So much
 so, that many plugins now ''require'' their users to have later versions
 of PHP. This means that instead of WordPress taking the lead on this
 issue, plugin developers are forced to educate their users on what PHP
 means, why the php version is important.

 So while it is great that WordPress isn't being a bully, it is making
 plugin authors and WP trainers, and developers, etc...  take on the
 responsibility of educating their customers. Or stick with supporting PHP
 5.2, which can often lead to very difficult to manage codebases with a lot
 of technical debt. Simple things like late static binding has the ability
 to make lots of code in complex plugins more sane, and would also have
 benefits for core itself.

 So while WordPress does not strictly need support for 5.3+, it and the
 community would benefit highly from it. Both concretely with day to day
 developing, but also WP's perception from the larger PHP development
 community.

 Like jdgrimes, I'm not saying let's drop 5.2 tomorrow and leave thousands
 of site owners in the dust, but there needs to be a public facing strategy
 of some kind that has a reasonable timeline.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/33381#comment:53>
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