With Apple‘s release of OS X Lion, the bundled version of PHP has been updated to PHP 5.3.6, the very latest production version of PHP.
PHP 5.3 includes features like:
- namespaces,
- lambda funtions,
- late static binding, and
- a native mysql driver, mysqlnd.
This is good news for web developers using Mac. If we want to work the latest PHP release, we don’t have to resort to installing a separate version of PHP, using a tool like MacPorts.
Probably the fact that Lion is only available as a download through the Apple App Store has helped Apple ship with the latest PHP version.
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard currently uses PHP 5.3.4, even with the latest 10.6.8 update.
A PHP 5.4 Alpha has just been released, with useful features like traits. I wonder whether Apple will update to PHP 5.4 during Lion’s lifetime? I can only hope.