Short open tags are not always enabled since PHP 5.4. The documentation talks about the short echo tags. Which is a different thing. (short open tags are <? style tags, short echo tags are <?= style tags, for echo-ing). Then why are they enabled by default now? Well, there are a lot of scripts out … Read more
It’s not recommend you use short tags (<? ?>). You should use the full length tags (<?php ?>). If you want to make your application portable, it’s possible that short open tags are not allowed on another server and hence your application will break. On the other hand, the echo shorthand <?= $var ?> is … Read more
Set short_open_tag=On in php.ini And restart your Apache server.
They’re not recommended because it’s a PITA if you ever have to move your code to a server where it’s not supported (and you can’t enable it). As you say, lots of shared hosts do support shorttags but “lots” isn’t all of them. If you want to share your scripts, it’s best to use the … Read more