I’ve known about leaving off the semicolon in those instances, but I still put it there. I can’t help but wonder if a future version of PHP is going to require it, and I want to have my code as clean as possible to the smoothest transition, should it come to that. Besides, I’m OCD.
I’ll still use short tags, though, but ONLY in views. <?=$column_header_text;?> inserted in a view is easier for an external designer to work with, it actually looks like something that will be replaced, and they catch on faster. Some designers, who are not coders, freak out when they start seeing a log of <?php echo $column_header_text; ?> for some reason. (Not all designers, but several I’ve had to deal with at one particular company.)