You can now try PHP 8.1

Will PHP 8.1 be available by the end of the year?

The developers of PHP made the first public preview of the next version of the known dynamic language available this week. With the new PHP 8.1 Alpha 1, virtually anyone can gain insight into the incoming innovations in the language, including many interesting ones in the new version.

Perhaps one of the strangest sounds of these is that from now on a function will have a so-called never return type - which, in fact, will mean that the procedure will never return control to its calling location and, in this context, will never, under any circumstances, provide a return value. Instead, functions marked in this way will have to end either by terminating the code or throwing an exception on each of their execution branches.
Another curiosity is the so-called. the emergence of the concept of fibers, which may already be familiar to many from other languages. This is essentially a "lighter" version of thread management, which allows the runtime environment to alternate between performing different sequences of operations - thus achieving seemingly parallel execution of different sequences of operations with much less operational overhead.

In addition, in the new version, the codes will be able to explicitly request to clear I / O buffers (eg to ensure data consistency) before continuing to execute them, and the cryptographic library will support new encryption algorithms and better parameterization of those already available. . Also new will be support for the AVIF graphic file format, as well as the ability to use DNS over HTTPS in name resolution in the curl directory.

You can read more about further enhancements to PHP 8.1 here. The new version of the language will probably be available in the final version before the end of the year.

Once PHP 8.1 is available in the final version, you will be able to use it on your system.

Source: https://prog.hu/hirek/5769/mar-kiprobalhato-a-soha-vissza-nem-tero-fuggvenyeket-is-tamogato-php-8-1