How does PHP5 fare with earlier versions of the language
<p>I would like to learn PHP for web development but have been drawn back because of comments like the following<sup>*</sup>:</p>

<ul>
<li>PHP is good but generates spaghetti code</li>
<li>PHP is nice but Python is marriage material</li>
<li>PHP lacks stuff that you get in other languages like C# or Java</li>
</ul>

<p>But for PHP5 I have seen some promising comments. So, my question is: How does PHP5 fare with earlier versions of the language and is it good enough now to learn for web development. </p>

<p><sub>* Comments are just for reference not to incite a flame war. No comparison of PHP with other languages is asked for here. Please comment just on PHP5 and how it compares with earlier versions.</sub></p>
