Last modified: 2006-10-11 18:23:08 UTC
This was fixed in the 1.7 branch in r15469 (r1=15387&r2=15469">http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/branches/REL1_7/phase3/config/index.php?r1=15387&r2=15469) but it seems the change wasn't applied to the trunk (and so it's not in 1.8 either). The change moves the version checking to before including files which will generate syntax errors in PHP4.
Fixed on trunk in r16940