PHP 8.5: URI support, pipes, and smarter constant expressions

PHP 8.5 is not a rewrite moment like PHP 7 or PHP 8.0, but it is exactly the kind of minor release working teams want: cleaner primitives, less ceremony, and a few sharp new tools in the core language.

The headline additions are the new URI extension, the pipe operator `|>`, clone-with syntax, the `#[\NoDiscard]` attribute, and broader support for closures, casts, and first-class callables inside constant expressions. Together they make modern PHP read more like the code people were already trying to write.

That matters because PHP's current evolution is less about chasing novelty and more about removing friction. PHP 8.5 gives framework and library authors better building blocks without asking product teams to relearn the language from scratch.