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Gina Peter BanyardGirgias@phpc.social
Sep 5, 2026, 2:39 PM
> Part of this is due to WordPress being seen as dragging PHP backwards because of its backwards compatibility commitments.
Maybe because WP quite literally prioritises keeping support for *ancient* PHP version rather than newer ones? WP 6.2 released in 2023 *still* supported PHP 5.6, 5 years after it was EOL (PHP 8.2 was the latest stable at the time). [1]
I don't expect day 1 compat with a new version, but there is a *reason* why the community feels this way.
[1]: https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/php-compatibility-and-wordpress-versions/
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Replies

Gina Peter BanyardGirgias@phpc.social
Sep 5, 2026, 2:47 PM
And this is not new, as from what I know WP refused to participate in the Go PHP 5 project (https://gophp5.org/).
This was before my time, so maybe I am wrong. But when as a project you have a pattern of not pushing the ecosystem *forward* you will, quite naturally, be seen as holding it backwards.
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Gina Peter BanyardGirgias@phpc.social
Sep 5, 2026, 2:51 PM
> WordPress doesn’t need much from the language and has always been conservative in adopting language features. Server performance and security are what pull WordPress in; language features are pushed harder by frameworks like Laravel.
I'd love to hear the opinion of some of the other PHP CMS and eShop platforms as this seems like a whack justification. Because if you didn't need much from the language, upgrading *should* be easy and straightforward. As the surface you rely on is minimal.
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Juliettejrf_nl@phpc.social
Sep 6, 2026, 4:09 PM
@Girgias I have truly made an effort to try to make them see the light. Unfortunately, my proposal was blocked by the powers that be.... (even though widely hailed as a good plan TM)
https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/08/24/proposal-dropping-support-for-old-php-versions-via-a-fixed-schedule/
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Gina Peter BanyardGirgias@phpc.social
Sep 6, 2026, 5:38 PM
@jrf_nl Oh I know, without you WP would truly be left in the dust from an internals perspective (*cough* readonly *cough* caught in beta 3 *cough*).
And I found it at the time (and still now) to be an *extremely* conservative approach to the upgrade cycle.
It is somewhat a miracle that the 5% usage threshold means that PHP 7.4 is the minimal version required now. But it feels getting to PHP 8.X is going to take a few years....
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Juliettejrf_nl@phpc.social
Sep 6, 2026, 5:50 PM
@Girgias Oh, I fully agree it was a conservative approach, but that was deliberate. I went with a proposal which at least would have a chance of getting accepted. Anything more progressive would have been shot down without even a discussion.
If accepted, this would at least get WP moving - and moving steadily -, which is better than what was - and still is - happening.
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Juliettejrf_nl@phpc.social
Sep 6, 2026, 5:53 PM
@Girgias Also - if it had been accepted, WP would have had a PHP 8.2 minimum by end of this year, which no matter how conservative, is a hell of a lot better than what they have now.
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