PHP 5.5 New Updates

PHP 5.5 to Include Open Source Zend Optimizer+ 

What is pHP?

PHP is an open-source server-side scripting language designed for Web development to produce dynamic Web pages. It is one of the first developed server-side scripting languages to be embedded into an HTML source document rather than calling an external file to process data.

PHP 5.5 is now in its development cycle, currently at the Alpha 4 release. According to the initial release roadmap for PHP 5.5, this is the point where the feature freeze was supposed to happen, but that's not necessarily going to happen, as at least one key feature may yet still land.

Zend co-founder Zeev Suraski has proposed that the Zend Optimizer+ Opscode cache be directly integrated into PHP 5.5. The TL;dr version is that the Opscode cache makes PHP run faster.

The idea of a PHP Opscode cache isn't a new one, Zend Optimizer has been around since 1998 (and I've personally been using it since then), and other options like APC are widely deployed on many live production sites.

The impact of including Zend Optimizer+ in PHP 5.5 could be a two month delay in the final release. PHP 5.5 is currently roughly scheduled for general available in the first quarter of 2013.

"It should be noted that if we don’t integrate it in 5.5.0, based on the current timelines and versioning rules, the integration won’t happen before late 2014," Suraski warned.