PHP From ZeroModern PHP course

reference appendices

PHP Community History And Mascot Reference

PHP began as a set of tools created by Rasmus Lerdorf and evolved through multiple language generations into the PHP runtime used today. Community history provides context, but it is not required knowledge for writing application code.

Use This Reference When

  • Understanding legacy terminology.
  • Giving new developers context for the ecosystem.
  • Separating historical interest from technical requirements.

Historical Milestones

1995  Early PHP tools announced
1997  PHP/FI 2.0
1998  PHP 3.0
2000  PHP 4.0
2004  PHP 5.0
2015  PHP 7.0
2020  PHP 8.0

For current development decisions, use the supported-version information, migration guides, and manual rather than historical summaries.

Practice

Connect History To Maintenance

Choose one major PHP release boundary and explain one maintenance concern it creates in older codebases.

Show solution

A useful answer connects a release to a concrete audit item, such as PHP 8.0 stricter behaviour or PHP 8.2 dynamic-property deprecations.