The first major update of the widely deployed PHP web programming language in years brings new features that could help expand its adoption and usage. In the beginning of the web era, the open-source PHP programming language was at the core of all web development and, with its new 8.0 release, is trying to become more relevant for a new generation of developers. First released 25 years ago, PHP is the “P” in the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack that defined the first generation of web development. In recent years, other languages, including Python and JavaScript, have exceeded PHP’s popularity, while upstart languages such as Go and Rust are growing quickly too.