According to a statement posted Tuesday evening on the PHP Web site, the final version of PHP 5.0 is now available for download.
PHP is an open source server-side scripting language that is especially popular for building database-driven Web applications. The language, created in 1995, is currently managed by the non-profit Apache Software foundation. It is available for free download under a version of the Apache GPL open source license. According to a November, 2003 Netcraft survey, PHP is tone of the most popular server-side scripting languages, currently running on more than half the 14.5 million Apache-based Web sited included in the survey.
The PHP 5.0 release includes a number of significant changes, including native XML support, a completely rebuilt scripting engine, improved Web services support using a built-in SOAP extension. The PHP 5.0 update also includes a bundled version of the SQLite open source database, eliminating the need for developers to install a full-scale version of the SQL database engine for Web applications.
PHP 5.0 can be downloaded free of charge at:
http://www.php.net.