diff --git a/classes/phing/lib/Capsule.php b/classes/phing/lib/Capsule.php
index 951089405f..028d65023b 100644
--- a/classes/phing/lib/Capsule.php
+++ b/classes/phing/lib/Capsule.php
@@ -200,9 +200,9 @@ public function parse($template, $outputFile = null, $append = false)
      */
     protected function resolvePath($file, $basepath)
     {
-        if (!($file{0} == DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR || $file{0} == '/')
+        if (!($file[0] == DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR || $file[0] == '/')
             // also account for C:\ style path
-            && !($file{1} == ':' && ($file{2} == DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR || $file{2} == '/'))
+            && !($file[1] == ':' && ($file[2] == DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR || $file[2] == '/'))
         ) {
             if ($basepath != null) {
                 $file = $basepath . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $file;
diff --git a/classes/phing/tasks/system/Basename.php b/classes/phing/tasks/system/Basename.php
index c96657cf75..a6d1bd9e43 100644
--- a/classes/phing/tasks/system/Basename.php
+++ b/classes/phing/tasks/system/Basename.php
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ public function main()
             // char preceding the suffix is a '.', we assume the user
             // wants to remove the '.' as well
             $pos = strlen($value) - strlen($this->suffix) - 1;
-            if ($pos > 0 && $this->suffix{0} !== '.' && $value{$pos} === '.') {
+            if ($pos > 0 && $this->suffix[0] !== '.' && $value[$pos] === '.') {
                 $pos--;
             }
             $value = StringHelper::substring($value, 0, $pos);
diff --git a/classes/phing/tasks/system/CvsPassTask.php b/classes/phing/tasks/system/CvsPassTask.php
index d3d7f45113..acc543878f 100644
--- a/classes/phing/tasks/system/CvsPassTask.php
+++ b/classes/phing/tasks/system/CvsPassTask.php
@@ -391,7 +391,7 @@ final private function mangle($password)
     {
         $buf = "";
         for ($i = 0, $plen = strlen($password); $i < $plen; $i++) {
-            $buf .= chr(self::$shifts[ord($password{$i})]);
+            $buf .= chr(self::$shifts[ord($password[$i])]);
         }
 
         return $buf;
diff --git a/classes/phing/tasks/system/PropertyTask.php b/classes/phing/tasks/system/PropertyTask.php
index e25b4d62e5..ea23c174b9 100644
--- a/classes/phing/tasks/system/PropertyTask.php
+++ b/classes/phing/tasks/system/PropertyTask.php
@@ -552,7 +552,7 @@ protected function parsePropertyString($value, &$fragments, &$propertyRefs)
             if ($pos === (strlen($value) - 1)) {
                 array_push($fragments, '$');
                 $prev = $pos + 1;
-            } elseif ($value{$pos + 1} !== '{') {
+            } elseif ($value[$pos + 1] !== '{') {
 
                 // the string positions were changed to value-1 to correct
                 // a fatal error coming from function substring()
diff --git a/classes/phing/util/StringHelper.php b/classes/phing/util/StringHelper.php
index bd70394beb..d30add1ce6 100644
--- a/classes/phing/util/StringHelper.php
+++ b/classes/phing/util/StringHelper.php
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ public static function unqualify($qualifiedName, $separator = '.')
     /**
      * Converts a string to an indexed array of chars
      * There's really no reason for this to be used in PHP, since strings
-     * are all accessible using the $string{0} notation.
+     * are all accessible using the $string[0] notation.
      *
      * @param string $str
      *
diff --git a/test/classes/phing/BuildFileTest.php b/test/classes/phing/BuildFileTest.php
index 1ab0600ab2..1e72de338f 100644
--- a/test/classes/phing/BuildFileTest.php
+++ b/test/classes/phing/BuildFileTest.php
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ private function cleanBuffer($buffer)
         $cleanedBuffer = "";
         $cr = false;
         for ($i = 0, $bufflen = strlen($buffer); $i < $bufflen; $i++) {
-            $ch = $buffer{$i};
+            $ch = $buffer[$i];
             if ($ch == "\r") {
                 $cr = true;
                 continue;