PHP 8.4 beta 5 has been released, marking a significant milestone for PHP developers, particularly those working with Firebird databases. This update brings crucial enhancements to the built-in PDO-Firebird driver. Now supporting modern data types, including DECFLOAT, the driver offers substantial benefits for PHP applications using Firebird 4 and 5.

This improved Firebird support in standard PHP will streamline development of Firebird-based PHP applications, making the process more straightforward and transparent. For an in-depth look at these enhancements, check out the new article "PHP 8.4 Improvements when working with modern Firebird versions".