The next version of PHP seems to be somewhere around the corner. I'm pretty happy that some of positively the stupidest "features" of PHP are going bye-bye. There will be no more register_globals or magic_quotes settings, two of possibly the most moronic options I've ever seen anywhere, and the ones that implied PHP was a language for n00bs. Also the variables like $HTTP_*_VARS are being removed (introduced in PHP5 supposedly for backward compatibility), safe mode won't exist anymore and ereg() and eregi() are being removed. Though I never used them - who would with preg functions?

Unicode support will be better, and PHP 6 will have namespaces, and they look a bit like C++'s which is good (let's hope there are no disappointments like the supposed "object orientation" of php 5 - scope resolution operator wtf?). I'm particularly looking forward to namespaces, as having everything in global scope was a serious flaw that is now thankfully being fixed. I've noticed that this is probably the first PHP version that is actually moving in a positive direction, by removing the worst features and adding some of the most critical.

Seems like writing PHP code will be somewhat less painful now. I always disliked the tasteless "identifier melting pot" that is the single global namespace, and register_globals which just seemed like a very bad attempt at a joke. Well, you can't deny it's a decent improvement.

Read more about this topic: The future of PHP (IBM)

yes, yes...I couldn't agree more.

^ What he said. ^

:P From what I've heard neither of you have any idea about what he said?

I like traffic lights. He likes traffic traffic lights. that is what I said....that is what he said.