PHP 5.2 issue with new version

I attempted to update the webform_validation module from 7.x-1.5 to 7.x-1.7 to find that it was no longer working on my site. Upon further investigation, I found that the module was disabled and now has a message that it requires PHP 5.3+ to work. At present, we are unable to update our PHP version from PHP 5.2.17 (this is a project in process, but how long it will take is variable). With Drupal 7 core only requiring 5.2.5 and higher ( https://www.drupal.org/requirements ), I expect that modules for D7 will run under those same requirement levels. This module, however, no longer does.

I wanted to put this in the issue queue so that hopefully the module can be modified to work with PHP 5.2 again. Also, in case there are others who have tried to update this module and wondered why it was no longer working, here is the reason. I don't know how ingrained the PHP 5.3 requirement is in the module; it could be one function call, it could be exceptionally dependent.