Php change from 4.x to 5.x broke my web sites and I still don't trust php after that. I guess they might do it again from 7.x to 8.x, we'll see.
If having the same code working for a long time is the most important for you then you should probably use java or .net. Maybe c++ also but that is not as popular for building web apps.
I made my homepage in PHP, nothing important, but I spent some time doing it and I liked the result.
Then I didn't have enough time to maintain it, and I stopped paying attention to it for a while.
Later I checked my homepage again, the webhosting company updated the PHP version, nothing works anymore. It is not simple to fix, so I gave up.
I am not going to spend the same amount of effort on making my homepage in PHP again. Trust is easier lost than gained.
I would still be willing to code something in PHP for someone else, because hey, if it stops working in a year or two, it's their problem, not mine. But I would warn them that something like this is possible, and in my opinion likely to happen.
PHP are deprecating language "features" from 7.x to 7.y.
It's very hard for me to treat a language seriously when I could write code that simply won't be valid PHP in 2 years time, or worse, behaving differently.
Given the severity of some past PHP vulnerabilities, being on an old version can certainly be a problem.
> I guess they might do it again from 7.x to 8.x, we'll see.
I found the transition from 4 to 7 oddly easy, but that might just be the conventions i was using. I don't know about 8, don't plan to use it until i have to
If having the same code working for a long time is the most important for you then you should probably use java or .net. Maybe c++ also but that is not as popular for building web apps.