Whats New in PHP 6

 PHP 6.0 looks to be an exciting release. Nothing is
absolutely fixed yet, but it looks like it will see the demise of three
of my pet peeves: register_globals, magic_quotes_gpc and safe_mode. The
first was just a big security hole, the second messed with the data and
made changing environments potentially nightmarish, while the third was
a misnomer that nobody really understood, and provided a false sense of
security. There's also quite a lot of work scheduled to do with
Unicode. Here are some of the changes:
The register_globals, safe_mode and the various magic quotes options
will be removed.
The ereg extension is removed, while the XMLReader, XMLWriter
and Fileinfo extensions are added to the core, and by default are on.
Another addition I find particularly exciting is that APC (Alternative PHP Cache)
will be
added to the core, though will be off by default. APC can provide
serious performance benefits.
All E_STRICT messages will be merged into E_ALL, another
positive change that will encourage good programming practice.
ASP style <% tags will no longer be supported.
Addition of a new 64-bit integers. The current integer type
remains as is, 32 or 64-bit dependent on the platform.
Use of foreach with multi-dimensional arrays, for
example foreach($array as $k => list($a, $b)).
A new switch in php.ini will allow you to disable Unicode
semantics (by default they will be on).
There will also be various string improvements related to
Unicode.
The microtime() function will return the full floating point
number, rather than microseconds unix_timestamp, as at present,
probably making the function more readily useful for most people.
The {} notation for string indexes will no longer be supported,
while the [] version will get added substr() and array_slice()
functionality. Previously [] was deprecated, but most developers,
including myself, seem to use [].
FastCGI will always be enabled for the CGI SAPI, and will not
be able to be disabled.
The ancient HTTP_*_VARS globals will no longer be supported.
Everyone should have had more than enough time to remove any traces of
these.
var will alias public. var was
permitted with PHP4 classes, but in PHP 5 this raised a warning. In PHP 6
var will simply be an alias for public, so no warning
is necessary.
The ze1 compatibility mode, which tried to retain PHP 4
behaviour but had some bugs, will be removed.
Dynamic functions will no longer be permitted to be called with
static syntax.