PHP 5.3 is getting closer. The third alpha release is now public. The current plan is for betas and release candidates every 3-4 weeks and a full release by the end of March 2009.

The most high profile new feature is namespaces. This has been a while coming and not without complaint, especially regards to the seperator chosen – . Many other languages and a number of developers wanted :: , and for a while this was going to be the choice. A number of possibilities did get a look in.