I have been doing some work for a client, and using Laravel. They do not want to update their server off the included PHP version of 5.4 (let's not debate that, I know what everyone is thinking).
The question remains, is there anything in Laravel 5.1 that will not allow it to run on PHP 5.4, or is this just a recommendation/best practice?
as long as don't want to manually edit/change all files which require 5.5> (and which will be overridden with an update) you really need PHP 5.5.9
I'm not sure whether all L5.1 dependend packages would be installed either, since quite some of them require PHP 5.5.x as well for sure.
Best advise, as already the Beatles mentioned: Let It Be
No problem to continue using L5.0.x . It's working fine.
Laravel is now using a new syntax for referencing a class name
$this->call(UserTableSeeder::class); // It will return the namespace of the class
This is only supported in PHP 5.5 or higher! I believe all illuminate packages are updated for PHP 5.5 now! So stick with Laravel 4 or Laravel 5.0 if you can't upgrade to PHP 5.5 ;)
This is only one of the many new features of PHP 5.5 which are used by Laravel 5.1.