PHP 5 introduces
numerous new features that will make the programmer's life more interesting.
Let's take a quick look at some of them. If they don't make sense to you now,
don't worry, we cover all these features in detail in this book:
-
PHP has new integrated for support for XML. The various
functions and classes provided to handle XML in different ways all now use the
same underlying library (libxml2). This should make XML features more stable and
interoperable.
-
The SQLite SQL library is now bundled with PHP, together with
all the functions you need to work with it.
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PHP now supports private and protected methods and properties
in classes.
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PHP supports class constants.
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Objects passed to functions and methods are now passed by
reference. That is, a reference to an object is passed around your script rather
than copies of objects. This significantly reduces the likelihood of bugs in
object-oriented code.
-
PHP supports static methods and properties, making more
advanced object-oriented designs possible.
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Methods can now be declared to require particular object
types.
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The comparison operator (===) now checks that two
references point to the same object. Previously, it was hard to test objects in
this way.
-
PHP now supports abstract classes and interfaces.
Many of these improvements are due to some fundamental changes
under the hood.
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