Editing PHP (section)

=== <span id="PHP6-UNICODE">PHP 6 and Unicode</span> ===
PHP received mixed reviews due to lacking native [[Unicode]] support at the core language level.<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php
| title = Types: Strings (PHP Manual)
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| website = PHP.net
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php#language.types.string.details
| title = Details of the String Type (PHP Manual)
| access-date = 2021-09-22
| website = PHP.net
}}</ref> In 2005, a project headed by Andrei Zmievski was initiated to bring native [[Unicode]] support throughout PHP, by embedding the [[International Components for Unicode]] (ICU) library, and representing text strings as [[UTF-16]] internally.<ref>{{cite mailing list|url=http://marc.info/?l=php-internals&m=112365908921757&w=1|title=PHP Unicode support design document|date=2005-08-10|access-date=2014-02-09|author=Andrei Zmievski}}</ref> Since this would cause major changes both to the internals of the language and to user code, it was planned to release this as version 6.0 of the language, along with other major features then in development.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.php.net/php.internals/17668|title=PHP&nbsp;5.5 or 6.0|access-date=2014-02-09}}</ref>

However, a shortage of developers who understood the necessary changes, and performance problems arising from conversion to and from UTF-16, which is rarely used in a web context, led to delays in the project.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: What Happened to Unicode and PHP&nbsp;6|url=http://www.slideshare.net/andreizm/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-what-happened-to-unicode-and-php-6|access-date=2014-02-09|author=Andrei Zmievski|date=2011-04-22}}</ref> As a result, a PHP&nbsp;5.3 release was created in 2009, with many non-Unicode features back-ported from PHP&nbsp;6, notably namespaces. In March 2010, the project in its current form was officially abandoned, and a PHP&nbsp;5.4 release was prepared to contain most remaining non-Unicode features from PHP&nbsp;6, such as traits and closure re-binding.<ref>{{cite mailing list|url=http://news.php.net/php.internals/47120|title=PHP&nbsp;6|access-date=2014-02-07|date=2010-03-11|author=Rasmus Lerdorf}}</ref> Initial hopes were that a new plan would be formed for Unicode integration, but by 2014 none had been adopted.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}