---
title: PHP 5.3.0 Released
date: 2009-06-30 22:50:20
permalink: https://lesterchan.net/blog/2009/06/30/php-5-3-0-released/
author: Lester Chan
categories:
  - Software
tags:
  - PHP
---

Copy and pasted from [PHP 5.3.0 Release Announcement](http://php.net/releases/5_3_0.php).

The PHP development team is proud to announce the immediate release of PHP 5.3.0. This release is a major improvement in the 5.X series, which includes a large number of new features and bug fixes.

**The key features of PHP 5.3.0 include:**

- Support for [namespaces](http://php.net/namespaces)
- [Late static binding](http://php.net/lsb)
- [Lambda Functions and Closures](http://php.net/closures)
- Syntax additions: [NOWDOC](http://php.net/nowdoc), [ternary short cut “?:”](http://php.net/ternary) and [jump label](http://php.net/goto) (limited goto), [\_\_callStatic()](http://php.net/__callstatic)
- Under the hood performance improvements
- Optional [garbage collection](http://php.net/gc_enable) for cyclic references
- Optional [mysqlnd](http://php.net/mysqli.mysqlnd) PHP native replacement for libmysql
- Improved [Windows](http://windows.php.net) support including VC9 and experimental X64 binaries as well as portability to other supported platforms
- More consistent float rounding
- Deprecation notices are now handled via `E_DEPRECATED` (part of `E_ALL`) instead of the `E_STRICT` error level
- Several enhancements to enable more [flexiblity in php.ini](http://php.net/ini.sections) (and ini parsing in general)
- New bundled extensions: [ext/phar](http://php.net/phar), [ext/intl](http://php.net/intl), [ext/fileinfo](http://php.net/fileinfo), [ext/sqlite3](http://php.net/sqlite3), [ext/enchant](http://php.net/enchant)
- Over 140 bug fixes and improvements to PHP, in particular to: [ext/openssl](http://php.net/openssl), [ext/spl](http://php.net/spl) and [ext/date](http://php.net/datetime)

This release also drops several extensions and unifies the usage of internal APIs. Users should be aware of the following known backwards compatibility breaks:

- Parameter parsing API unification will cause some functions to behave more  
     or less strict when it comes to type juggling
- Removed the following extensions: [ext/mhash](http://php.net/mhash) (see [ext/hash](http://php.net/hash)), [ext/msql](http://php.net/msql), [ext/pspell](http://php.net/pspell) (see [ext/enchant](http://php.net/enchant)), [ext/sybase](http://php.net/sybase) (see [ext/sybase\_ct](http://php.net/sybase))
- Moved the following extensions to PECL: [ext/ming](http://php.net/ming), [ext/fbsql](http://php.net/fbsql), [ext/ncurses](http://php.net/ncurses), [ext/fdf](http://php.net/fdf)
- Removed [zend.ze1\_compatibility\_mode](http://php.net/manual/ini.core.php#ini.zend.ze1-compatibility-mode)

For users upgrading from PHP 5.2 there is a migration guide available [here](http://php.net/migration53), detailing the changes between those releases and PHP 5.3.0.

For a full list of changes in PHP 5.3.0, see the [ChangeLog](/ChangeLog-5.php#5.3.0).