PHP now has its own web server

PHP 5.4.0 - a major update to PHP has been released. Ushering in a whole lot of changes, this release of PHP is deemed to provide 20-30% speed increases in execution of scripts. The following are the important features of this new PHP release.

New features in PHP

• Improvements in memory management and performance.
• Traits - A new mechanism for code reuse. It reduces the limitations of single inheritance.
• Shortened Array syntax. Now use [...] instead of array(...) to create arrays.
• Magic Quotes have been deprecated and entirely removed in PHP 5.4.0. Other language features that have been given the boot are safe mode, break / continue, and $var syntax.
• Wordpress, Drupal, and every other PHP based websites will run faster when they start using PHP 5.4.0.
• Built-in Web server - PHP 5.4.0 now bundles its own web server which can be used for testing purpose. So you don't need to install Apache web server to learn PHP/develop a website any more.
• New version of Zend Framework.

A migration guide has been provided for people who wish to upgrade from PHP 5.3.

You can read the official release announcement for further details.