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Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2021 18:05:00 +0100
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To: Go Kudo <zeriyoshi@gmail.com>
Cc: PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Random Extension 3.0
From: Danack@basereality.com (Dan Ackroyd)

Go Kudo wrote:
> Dan Ackroyd wrote:
>> you can _simply_ include ext/random/random.h." sounds pretty
>> dismissive of causing possibly unneeded work for downstream projects.
>
> The point I was trying to make was that while BC Breaks do occur, they are very easy to solve.


I've found it useful to think about "value = benefit minus cost".

I was calling out that it seems to be that this is a change you want
to do for aesthetic reasons and are justifying it by trivialising the
work involved. i.e. it has a tiny benefit that only has a positive
value if the cost is also tiny.

Although the change is simple:

* Any code base that includes standard/php_rand.h won't compile, and
people will have to find out what changed. Even though the fix may be
easy to implement, each of those people will have to figure it out for
themselves.

* quite a few people will have to learn (or relearn) how to use #if to
compare PHP version to include either standard/php_rand.h or
random/php_random.h if they want their code to work on more than 1 PHP
version.

* it makes more work for downstream distributors of PHP, as their
patches (including security patches) will need to be moved around.

If there's a good reason to move stuff around, then fine, but avoiding
creating extra work downstream is worth doing. And possibly is a hot
topic right now.

You could probably avoid a lot of downstream work by leaving a stub
file at standard/php_rand.h that includes random/php_random.h.

cheers
Dan
Ack

btw, if you could please avoid top-posting, that would be appreciated:
https://github.com/php/php-src/blob/master/docs/mailinglist-rules.md

"Do not top post. Place your answer underneath anyone you wish to
quote and remove any previous comment that is not relevant to your
post."