Title: [Plugin: Portico] Why PHP 5.3?
Last modified: August 19, 2016

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# [Plugin: Portico] Why PHP 5.3?

 *  [smurkas](https://wordpress.org/support/users/smurkas/)
 * (@smurkas)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-portico-why-php-53/)
 * I’ve had a look at the code (which looks great btw) and all you seem to use 5.3
   for is the namespace support. I’d understand the choice more if you were using
   alot of the new features but right now it feels like all you’re doing is severely
   limiting your potential userbase for the plugin.
 * I just changed it for 5.2 compability and the changes that need to be made are
   just the namespaces, the __DIR__ constant and the one use of ?:.
 * [http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/portico/](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/portico/)

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Daniel Bettles](https://wordpress.org/support/users/danbettles/)
 * (@danbettles)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-portico-why-php-53/#post-1813056)
 * Hey, Smurkas
 * Thanks for your feedback.
 * I wrote the plugin in PHP 5.3 quite simply because that’s what I use. Everything
   I write in PHP – with very few exceptions – is for version 5.3. I am fond of 
   the new features, particularly namespaces, which give us a much more elegant 
   way of organising code – naturally – so there’s no good reason for me to use 
   anything else.
 * I wrote Portico to help me out on a personal project – again, based on PHP 5.3–
   and open-sourced it because I thought there may be others who would find it useful.
 * I agree that I may be limiting my audience, but working with an older version
   of PHP from day-one, when 5.3 has been gold for 18 months or so, doesn’t make
   a lot of sense to me – and that’s discounting the fact that I _like_ using the
   features of PHP 5.3. I could well be wrong, but I think now is the time people
   start looking more closely at PHP 5.3, because hosts are starting to roll-out
   PHP 5.3 to users of shared hosting – which should rapidly increase its use.
 * That said, however, if I get a _lot_ of requests from prospective users, developers
   working with 5.2, then maybe I’ll consider down-grading the code. (That still
   sounds a bit bonkers to me, though: rather than upgrading to PHP 5.3, we down-
   grade code. Anyways.)
 * Perhaps you could publish a patch for PHP 5.2 users, since you’ve done all the
   work.
 * Thanks again
 *  Plugin Author [Daniel Bettles](https://wordpress.org/support/users/danbettles/)
 * (@danbettles)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-portico-why-php-53/#post-1813058)
 * Oh, and sorry for taking so long to get back to you – I’ve been a bit under the
   weather.
 *  Thread Starter [smurkas](https://wordpress.org/support/users/smurkas/)
 * (@smurkas)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-portico-why-php-53/#post-1813062)
 * Thanks for the answer!
 * I just want to say that in theory I agree with you and I also think we should
   be trying to move forward but realistically we’re still a long way away. Support
   for the 5.2 line just ended though so you never know.
 * I personally think the bigger players like WordPress should push the button on
   this issue since if WordPress went 5.3 then a huge amount of people and hosts
   would have to switch but right now, the incentive isn’t strong enough.
 * The numbers are about 6 months old but then 3.56% of the WordPress community 
   and Ilias latest stats found [here](http://phpadvent.org/2010/usage-statistics-by-ilia-alshanetsky)
   put 5.3 adoption at 4% so it seems like there at least isn’t a bias against 5.3
   in the WordPress community.
 * A potential user base of about 4% is very small but if the goal is just sharing
   your stuff then more power to you. I might be able to keep an updated 5.2 branch
   running, at least as long as you don’t start using late static binding or __callStatic().

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘[Plugin: Portico] Why PHP 5.3?’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/portico.svg)
 * [Portico](https://wordpress.org/plugins/portico/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/portico/#faq)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/portico/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/portico/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/portico/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/portico/reviews/)

 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [smurkas](https://wordpress.org/support/users/smurkas/)
 * Last activity: [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-portico-why-php-53/#post-1813062)
 * Status: not resolved