problems with wordpress and php version 5.3.3-1

Question

I recently installed a server with new php version - 5.3.3-1 and when I imported wordpress site and database, there were some problems with plugin settings - some of them were reset. In pagenavi plugin I even couldn't save settings at all.

So the question is - what changes in php 5.3.3-1 are the ones that reset plugin settings or interfere with common wordpress plugin coding practices.

And other question is - what is the best newest php version recommended for wordpress and it's plugins to work without a hassle (for versions 2.3 - 3.0.1)?

Maybe someone can share most common deprecated php functions that are in frequent use in plugins? In old server php version is 5.2.6-3 and there everything works fine.

Wordpress version in use is 2.9.2, but there are lots of other various version wordpress installations on the server which should be placed to the new one

Answer 1

The latest and greatest php version is always the recommended version. Seriously. All core devs use it when developing trunk. Only a few bother to test older php versions, as can be seen by the occasional ticket opened related to php4 or php5.x incompatibility.

The same cannot be said by plugin authors, however... As you pointed out...