PHP allows me to: <pre class="prettyprint"><code>Hello, my name is <?php echo $name ?>, and stuff. </code></pre> Is that okay to do instead of <pre class="prettyprint"><code>Hello, my name is <?php echo $name; ?>, and stuff. </code></pre> I know the <code><?= ?></code> is being taken away, is this another one of those shortcuts to be killed?

Close statement with ; or not?

PHP allows me to:

Hello, my name is <?php echo $name ?>, and stuff.

Is that okay to do instead of

Hello, my name is <?php echo $name; ?>, and stuff.

I know the <?= ?> is being taken away, is this another one of those shortcuts to be killed?

It's technically okay, but most people will recommend against it. It's a "best practices" issue. If you get in the habit of leaving off the semicolon in single lines of code like that, it's more likely that you'll forget to do it in larger sections of code where it is required.