PHP 8.2 is a major release of the PHP programming language, which was released in November 2022. It brings several improvements, security enhancements, and deprecations. Here’s a brief overview of what’s new in PHP 8.2:

Improvements:

1. JIT Compiler: The most significant improvement in PHP 8.2 is the introduction of the JIT (Just-In-Time) compiler, which improves the performance of PHP code by dynamically compiling it to native machine code.
2. New Features: PHP 8.2 introduces several new features, including the new ‘fibonacci heap’ data structure for faster key-value pair operations and the ‘str_starts_with’ and ‘str_ends_with’ functions for string manipulation.
3. New PHP Web Server: PHP 8.2 ships with a new built-in web server that is more robust and efficient than the previous one.
4. Improved Type Safety: PHP 8.2 improves type safety with new strict and non-strict type declarations, which enable developers to specify the expected type of a function’s arguments and return value.

Security:

1. Sodium Crypto Library: PHP 8.2 includes the Sodium cryptography library, which provides a safer and more secure alternative to the traditional mcrypt library.
2. Improved SSL/TLS Support: PHP 8.2 improves SSL/TLS support with the introduction of the TLSv1.3 protocol, which is faster and more secure than previous versions.
3. Improved Error Handling: PHP 8.2 introduces better error handling for invalid certificates and certificates that have expired or been revoked.

Deprecations:

1. Magic Quotes: PHP 8.2 finally deprecates the ‘magic_quotes’ feature, which automatically escapes special characters in user input. This feature has been a source of security vulnerabilities in the past and is no longer considered necessary.
2. Stricter Types: PHP 8.2 introduces stricter type checking, which means that code that previously relied on type juggling may no longer work as expected.
3. Several Other Deprecated Features: PHP 8.2 deprecates several other features, including the ‘create_function’ function, the ‘mcrypt’ library, and the ‘each’ function.

In conclusion, PHP 8.2 brings several improvements, security enhancements, and deprecations. The introduction of the JIT compiler and the Sodium cryptography library are major highlights of this release, while the deprecation of the ‘magic_quotes’ feature and stricter type checking will require developers to update their code to ensure compatibility.