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PHP4 vs PHP5...learning curve

Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 12:49 pm
by kbrown3074
I have been using PHP4 in my current job and I am looking for a new PHP position. I notice there are some PHP5 positions out there but Im not sure that I have enough knowledge to say that I can code completely in PHP5. Has anyone been in the same position and how hard was it to get up to speed with PHP5?

Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 1:19 pm
by Weirdan
not that hard as far as language differences concerned. PHP5 empowers you with new tools and doesn't take much of older ones away.

Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 1:28 pm
by AKA Panama Jack
There are a few extra functions added to PHP 5. More along the lines of someone saying this would be neat let's add it. ;)

The biggest difference is how they expanded on Classes. You can still use PHP 4 classes under PHP 5 but they added many new things to how classes function. If companies are looking for people with PHP 5 experience they may be looking for someone to maintain any PHP 5 specific Class code. So I would focus in that area.

Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 2:39 pm
by kbrown3074
I figured the major differences were classes. Right now I just dont have a whole lot of exposure to the different classes in PHP. I have been using PEAR but thats as far as the classes go.

Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 3:17 pm
by Chris Corbyn
kbrown3074 wrote:I figured the major differences were classes. Right now I just dont have a whole lot of exposure to the different classes in PHP. I have been using PEAR but thats as far as the classes go.
I'm going to guess this company are looking for someone with OOP experience which is where PHP5 stretches away from PHP4 as PJ said. I don't mean to come across badly, but if you don't know much about OOP you might not be what they are looking for. Have a read around and practise writing OO code with PHP5, it'll be a pleasurable learning experience if nothing else :)

Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 5:46 pm
by kbrown3074
I have some OOP experience from using Visual Fox..but havent used it really in a couple of years. I understand the concepts, just havent put them to use in production code.