I am just starting to learn CakePHP, I have downloaded version 1.3.7. i noticed that in the tutorials and online docs that 95% of the variables shown are preceded with VAR.
after some research i found the following on php.net
The PHP 4 method of declaring a variable with the var keyword is still supported for compatibility reasons (as a synonym for the public keyword). In PHP 5 before 5.1.3, its usage would generate an E_STRICT warning.
So my questions is two fold, should i be using var and if i don't will it have any effect on cakephp?
sorry for the noob question
CakePHP is coded such that people who are still using older versions of PHP (i.e.: PHP4) can use the engine. If you're coding in PHP5, you can still use the engine without any issues; you'll just probably prefer to use PHP5 specific syntax for your own application, as you pointed out (such as declaring methods/classes as public, protected, private, static, etc.).
No, it won't affect CakePHP. Cake is a large project and I imagine this is a case of slightly stale documentation. For simplicity sake, you'd replace "var" with "public".