What new features and changes were introduced in PHP 8, and how might they impact development?

PHP 8 introduced many important changes and new features that improve performance and development convenience:

• JIT compilation (Just-In-Time) — significantly increases code execution speed, especially for compute-intensive tasks.
• Union Types — now you can specify multiple types for parameters and return values, for example function foo(int|string $param).
• Attributes (annotations) — allow adding metadata to classes, methods, and properties in the form of built-in attributes, simplifying reflection work.
• Constructor Property Promotion — reduces code by automatically declaring and initializing properties through the constructor.
• Match Expression — a more powerful and safe alternative to switch, returning a value and not requiring break.
• Nullsafe Operator (?->) — simplifies null checks when calling methods or accessing properties.
• Improvements in error handling — stricter typing and improved error messages.

These changes enable writing cleaner, more efficient, and safer code, accelerate development, and facilitate project maintenance.