Laravel 6

first 5.3 coming for now

What would be real real real real real nice is to have a version last a decade. With updates yes major Fiascos no. For example I loved 4.2 it would have been nice just to enhance it to be fully functional with PHP version 5.5 through version 7 but nooooooooooooo.

I really wish 5.3 will be LTS and will be around for a long time utilizing php7 features

@lorvent it would definitely be nice if the LTS versions was longer than three years even five years would be nice.

And @TaylorOtwell please do 5 years not just 3. And I was wondering is there anyway you could post some documentation somewhere on making version 4.2 PHP 5.5 through PHP 7 compatible surely it would just be a few tweaks. Unfortunately I would not know how to tweak it myself. I really loved version 4.2 for small projects.
@JeffreyWay could even do a video on updating version 4.2 for both PHP version compatibilities.

I don't care what the version number is, I just hope that in the far future updates will be upgradable through composer.

+1 for updates via composer and seems like it can be done as Taylor has done this with Spark.

@jlrdw what did you like in Laravel 4.2 that you miss in 5.1+? I started using Laravel when 4.2 was the latest release but I didn't really get into it that much.

@Prez hard to put into words it just seemed so simple and easy to use. But I know this is probably unrealistic because of namespace and PSR changes. But right now I would be so happy to see 5 years put on an LTS instead of just three years. I just don't get the only three years thing.
What is real funny is some of my old Microsoft Access VBA code from access 97 still worked when I installed Access 2010. Now that was a good thing. I guess lately things changing way too quickly. Even the Java Technologies some of them like the Java ee 1.4 spec lasted it seems like a long time you didn't have to re-program as often.
Yek I miss the old MS DOS days programming in dbase 3, before Microsoft Windows even existed. Sorry to ramble I just miss the good ol Days.
Edit:
And another good thing back then a shrimp dinner at Red Lobster was only $4.99, coffee a quarter. I need a time machine.

@jlrdw Only three years? That’s almost a lifetime in web development terms! 3 years is long enough giving the frequency of PHP updates. A 5-year support period may see a version of Laravel having to be maintained over two major PHP versions, possibly three depending on when PHP 5 is officially end of life. That’s just not feasible.

@martinbean why can't they have the PHP versions last longer? Maybe if enough people ask they would.

info on official release cycle,

https://laravel-news.com/2016/01/laravel-release-process/

Its a general idea, not set in stone.

@jlrdw Because it’s a dynamic language and if it slowed down development because people wanted it to “hang around longer”, then nothing new would get released.

@martinbean see http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaee/download-141771.html the Java 1.4 is still available, do you know how long it's been around. So why can't PHP be this way.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_EE_version_history Article says This version also added component-based JavaServer Faces (JSF) technology intended to replace JSP. That never happened. JSP, servlets are still as strong as ever, why because they are good.
If it ain't broke quit fixing it.

@jlrdw haha, yeah but also, you made only $400 per month :)

I guess you could keep your project alive even after the 3 years LTS is offering, you just need to make sure you have compatible software (PHP, MySQL, etc) running on the server.

Alternatively, you could upgrade your project to 5.5 (or whatever the next LTS version will be) when that comes and get another 3 years of LTS.

@Prez that reminds me of a humorous story
There was a Mac User a Windows user and a pig in the maternity ward waiting for their wives to deliver their babies.
All of a sudden the Lights Went Out after a minute they came back on.
The doctor came out and said all is fine the babies were born and are healthy.
But there's bad news, When the Lights Went Out they were born and switched around so we don't know who's who.
You will have to draw straws to pick a child.
The windows user won the straw contest. He went back picked up the pig and was heading out and the doctor stopped him, and sad There are two human babies how come you didn't pick one of them?
The windows user replied I couldn't take a chance at getting the Mac User.
Originally this was an Aggie joke can you tell?

@jlrdw JVEE 1.4 is 13 years old. The current version is Java EE 7. I’m sure you could find a 13-year-old version of PHP if you really wanted.

Write Java if you want to work with runtimes older than a decade.

@martinbean you missed the point the latter versions maintain backwards compatibility for quite some time. As I said when I installed Microsoft Access 2010 my old office access 97 VBA code still worked so I don't mind updating I just like the idea of backwards compatibility.
Take CH Robinson for an example, their software cost around 23 million dollars. When I worked for a trucking company I used to BS with the IT people at CH Robinson. I am almost positive that they don't have to completely rewrite code every three years.
Minor tweaks minor enhancements yes. But I think at least backwards compatibility should be a decade give or take a year or two. A Blog is one thing but imagine spending 23 million for logistics software now would you honestly want to rewrite that after 3 years.
Even Windows 10 came with backwards compatibility.
Edit:
Some of the things that some people think are improvements well you know not everyone feels that way.
But you have to admit a happy medium would be enhancements along the way but yet maintaining backwards compatibility for a while but longer than 3 years.
I would imagine there were PHP business applications that were perfectly fine but maybe just need some security updates.

@jlrdw haha, I will have to use that one on my MAC friends :)

Btw, I have no idea what Aggie is but out of that list, I guess school?..

@Prez Texas A&M known as Aggies. Do a Google search for Aggie Jokes you will have a good time I promise.

@jlrdw Enterprise, desktop-based software is different to dynamic web applications. Software like that is meant to be written once and to have a fairly long lifetime. Web-based applications, because they run on a web server, can be updated easily and frequently, unlike desktop-based software that is installed on end users’ machines. Plus, web technologies advance at a faster rate than operating systems. Compare a website built today to one built five years ago and you’ll laugh at how dated it looks. Compare a desktop app to one written five years ago, and there won’t be a wealth of difference.

You’re essentially comparing apples to oranges.

@jlrdw cheers, will look it up :)

@martinbean But in reality it didn't take that long to go from ver 4.2 to 5.1. I had data and pagination up and running fairly quickly. Authentication in 5.1 took me a while to grasp. A side question, does laravel authentication use regular sessions?

does laravel authentication use regular sessions?

@jlrdw No. It uses whatever session driver you configure.

I'm dreaming of Laravel 6 with no backward compatibility with PHP 5. That means, primitive typehints all over and return types hints. Oh, and all of that in strict mode.

@jlrdw Backward compatibility is almost always performance crippling, and definitely increases code size and you have to haul around all the extra crap to talk to old things that otherwise wouldn't be necessary.

That logistics software, you're right, they're definitely not rewriting it constantly... not because doing so would be a bad thing, only because doing so would be cost prohibitive.

@RoboRobok you sound to me like a mere hobbyist not someone who's actually written real world applications. Take that CH Robinson thing for example can you imagine if they use laravel and in 3 years had to rewrite software costing millions of dollars. I wonder if you have ever wondered is that why the big Enterprise people stick with Java Technologies. Some of the code I wrote a decade ago using Java ee 1.4 specification still works fine in the Java ee 6 specification.
So I guess keep your little hobby programming up play with laravel but remember if you were paying for upgrades I am sure you would be begging for backwards compatibility. So Dream On.
The only reason I ever went into PHP is hosting is easier to find and I maintain a site for a non-profit. I wish servlet hosting was as easy and cost-efficient as PHP hosting I would tuck my tail and run as far away from PHP as I could. But the Java Technologies are harder to set up and find cost-effective hosting. Where as the trucking company that's what they used the Java Technologies.

@jlrdw Stop being confrontational. If you want to write applications that’ll have a lifetime longer than your average PHP-based application, then don’t write PHP. Simple.

Stop arguing with PHP developers on a PHP-centric forum if you don’t like PHP.

@martinbean I love php, I just wish life cycles were a little longer. I don't write blogs for people, I used to be at a busy trucking co where it took a while to write and tweak the software we used. Un-like some folks, I don't like to re-write software very often. I am fine with enhancments, tweaks, security patchs, etc. But not a complete re-write.
Are you saying if you have a large scaled web database management system using laravel 5.1, that you don't mind a complete re-write in 3 years? If so, I find that extremely hard to believe.
I can't blame @TaylorOtwell as he is following php cycles. It is the folks that maintain php who could extend the cycles.

@jlrdw if you use RHEL/CentOS (possible SUSE) then you get a 10yr support on the version of PHP they ship. I've got lots of 5-10yr old PHP projects still running. Some of them are in dire need of a re-write, but that's my fault for coding them badly in the first place ;-)

PHP itself is very strong on backwards compatibility (sometimes to the annoyance of people wanting to get rid of weird bits of syntax) - generally if you wrote an app on, say, PHP4 it'll still run quite happily on PHP5. I'm re-doing on a 10+ year old ~70,000 PHP 4 app just now that's running ok on PHP5.6 and very minor tweaks to get it working with PHP7.

If you use a specific framework ontop of the core language then you're trading off some control for the usability benefits the framework give you. That goes for all languages not just PHP. If I pick a Java framework and it begins to use a new feature of Java in it's next release then I can either not use that release, or upgrade my version of Java - just like I would with PHP or Python or Ruby. If I don't use a framework then it's entirely up to me - but so is doing all the grunt work :-) You just make the choice if that's a compromise you're willing to make :-)

For instance, Java 8 is the only supported version. But if you've got a Java 6 app you can probably run it on Java 8 quite happily. PHP currently support 5.6 and 7.0 - if you've got a 5.0 (or even 4.0) app it'll probably run quite happily on the newer version - just like Java. You could compare Laravel to the popular SparkJava framework for instance - Spark only runs on the latest supported version of Java, much like Laravel.

It'd be nice to have versions of Laravel supported for 5-10 years - and it might come as it gets greater adoption. It's still a very young project so there are yet to be a lot of companies/large consultancies supporting it. If you take laravel 3 as being the first 'real' version (as in widely adopted and recognisable to current users) then the project is only four years old. At some point maybe Taylor will 'do a Zend' - we'll see :-)

@jlrdw Again, if you don’t like PHP’s relatively quick update cycles, use something else.