It has been a long time since a Simple:Press update but that does not mean we have been lazing about - in fact we have been running with two projects the first of which is made available today - version 5.7.4 - with perhaps most importantly, support for php7.

We were pleased to discover that we were largely php7 compliant but there were a few small items that needed a clean and polish. For anyone not familiar with php7 then it is the latest and greatest version of php and is winning users around simply because of it's noticeable performance boost. We, along with most plugin authors, are now using php7 exclusively for all development. If your host is not thinking of updating you then perhaps it is time to put the pressure on!

The update also includes many bug fixes - mostly that have been reported to us by users since the last update - as well as updates to several plugins to fix bugs and ensure their compatibility with php7.

The other project we have launched this winter is version 6 which will have quite a long incubation and is our current main focus. This is looking to be a virtual rewrite and - if all goes to plan - will include some nice new features we have wanted to do for quite some time. As I say, that's the plan but ETA - unknown. Meanwhile, we will continue to run a 5.7.5 in parallel to keep on top of fixes, WP changes and other small mods that can be squeezed in.

There are no major theme changes with 5.7.4 so no codex page this time around. For the change log - see the usual place in the Simple:Press toolbox. Just for the record - it is possible to check out the change log before updating which is a question we have been asked several times before.