The site is now configured to run under PHP 5.5!
For your daily use this will not change anything.
For me who maintains it is an important step, because NintAndBox is hosted on a shared server, which means that we are not the only customer (i.e. site) on the server. Therefore, our host requires us to be compliant with his server configuration, including specific PHP versions.
PHP 5.4 is no longer supported since September 2015, we really had to move on.
PHP 5.5 is unfortunately not supported since July 2016, however it reduces up to one year the obsolescence, therefore reducing risks from our host.
I am obviously aware there is PHP 7, and you would be right to ask me why not to switch to it right now?
Let me share you a bit about technical constraints and my life as a developer
The current version of NintAndBox is powered by the open source Joomla 2.5 engine.
Since the site was launched back in 2013, Joomla project has naturally continued to evolve, and the 2.5 version is no longer supported since a long time. Because I developed and used specific Joomla 2.5 components for some features, I am bound to keep Joomla 2.5, otherwise I would have to rewrite everything.
As Joomla 2.5 is no longer supported, I must therefore ensure myself full compatibility with PHP, review the whole site's source code and eventually make the necessary changes. That's why I do things step by step.
To give you an image, it is easier to climb a staircase step by step than many at once!
I will let the site run under PHP 5.5 for few weeks, the time to validate that everything works fine. The next step will be to switch the site to PHP 5.6, which is still supported until 2019, to ensure the technical perenniality and save some time to do a complete overhaul (if hopefully I find time).