Delete the Variable declarations section

[colshrapnel]

With the new memory management model the Variable declarations part is not relevant anymore. so it's better to be removed.

[matthewtrask]

@colshrapnel thanks! A few questions:

• Does it make sense to leave it and instead add a note about the improved memory management?
• What version did memory management get better in? I know we are aiming to keep people moving versions, but there are certainly cases of people still using older versions of PHP sadly that we may wanna keep in mind.

[drbyte]

I agree with the PR. IMO simply removing the section makes sense:

1. I believe the mention of "the new memory management model" is a reference to PHP 5.0
2. The advice being removed is more of a micro-optimization IMO, not "Basics".
3. I'm glad Google deleted their outdated doc (see the WayBack URL being removed by this PR), as a lot of other content in that same page was weak as well.

If there's a strong desire to keep any mention of variable declarations, I'd limit it to something brief like: "Don't create variables you don't need."

Just my 2cents :D

[colshrapnel]

@matthewtrask I don't think is worth to keep this section. A question has been asked in /r/php recently and I can feel the confusion it creates, so it's better to avoid it at all.

Regarding the version, initially I thought it was the improvements made by Dmitry in PHP 7 but it seems this one has been made even earlier.

[matthewtrask]

perfect thank you @colshrapnel!