How PHP 8.2 and the PHP Foundation Are Shaping Web Development in 2023

PHP has undergone remarkable changes over the past 30 years, and the last decade has seen unprecedented evolution. Each new year the author writes a state‑of‑the‑language article, and this 2023 edition focuses on the PHP Foundation and PHP 8.2.

PHP Foundation

Founded a little over a year ago, the PHP Foundation consists of ten volunteers and six paid developers who work on the language core.

Core developer Nikita has left, raising concerns about staffing, but he is not the only one capable of core work; many contributors have helped with PHP 8.0 and 8.1. The Foundation aims to keep pace and have enough core developers next year. PHP 8.2 is already under development, though few RFCs have been drafted. 2022 will likely be a stability‑focused year rather than a breakthrough year.

The 2022 report shows impressive numbers:

US$580,000 raised

Six developers funded to work on the PHP core

Foundation members contributed nearly half of all php‑src commits

Eight new RFCs were created, only one of which was rejected

The author encourages companies using PHP to consider donating to the Foundation.

PHP 8.2

Although often seen as a minor release, PHP 8.2 introduces several notable features.

Examples

readonly class PostData {
    public function __construct(
        public string $title,
        public string $author,
        public string $body,
        public DateTimeImmutable $createdAt,
        public PostState $state,
    ) {}
}

$rng = $is_production
    ? new Random\Engine\Secure()
    : new Random\Engine\Mt19937(1234);
$randomizer = new Random\Randomizer($rng);
$randomizer->shuffleString('foobar');

function alwaysFalse(): false {
    return false;
}

function generateSlug((HasTitle&HasId)|null $post) { /* … */ }

function connect(
    string $user,
    #[\SensitiveParameter] string $password
) {
    // …
}

More features are available for exploration.

Ecosystem

Packagist, the PHP package manager, now lists 361,000 packages, 60,000 more than the previous year.

Packagist has surpassed 500 billion installations, reaching 74,492,061,634 installs, an increase of 24 billion in the last year.

The author regularly publishes version‑usage statistics based on Packagist data, showing rapid adoption of PHP 8.* while many projects remain on older, slower, and insecure versions.

These data illustrate a split in the community: some stay current with modern PHP, others lag behind.

Rector, a free automated refactoring tool, helps upgrade codebases to newer PHP versions with minimal configuration.

The author used Rector to update a community‑driven aggregator to PHP 8.2, noting that many developers still avoid such tools despite the effort required to upgrade manually.

The two major PHP frameworks, Laravel and Symfony, continue to thrive. Laravel employs eight full‑time developers and is used by 67 % of surveyed PHP developers. Symfony, while less popular, remains a stable, enterprise‑grade framework with many reusable components.

WordPress, despite its popularity, lags in modern PHP support, offering only beta support for PHP 8.0 and remaining tied to older versions for business reasons.

Superset Vision

The author dreams of a PHP superset with proper IDE and static analysis support, referencing the emerging PXP project as a step toward that goal.

In summary, 2023 promises exciting developments for PHP developers, from the Foundation’s work to new language features and a vibrant ecosystem.