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Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2022 18:02:14 +0200
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Experimental features
From: cschneid@cschneid.com (Christian Schneider)

Am 05.10.2022 um 15:38 schrieb Alex Wells <autaut03@gmail.com>:
> Advantages of experimental features over extensions:
> - they allow changes to the parser
> - they are universally supported (by IDE's, parsers etc) because they =
are
> part of a stable language release, not an unpopular/unknown extension
> - usages of them can be found in a codebase and then analysed (unlike
> extensions that don't have any kind of marker to denote them from =
regular
> code)
> - it's easy to implement a universal warning mechanism - for IDEs, =
static
> analysers and PHP itself to warn users about the consequences of using =
an
> experimental feature
> - they don't need a versioning mechanism, because they are effectively
> always "alpha" - i.e. non-stable, so any PHP release can introduce a
> breaking change into an experimental feature

Just to maybe have a more complete picture, here are some possible =
advantages of extensions over experimental features;
- Core developers don't have to support/maintain it (they already have a =
lot on their plate)
- Extensions have the notion of alpha/beta/stable releases and they can =
offer different versions at the same time.
- Having to install them manually makes it obvious that you are on your =
own if you use them in production but the notion of a stable extension =
is an indication that it is not completely reckless :-)

The fact that you explicitly list always being alpha as an advantage for =
experimental features makes me wonder when I would actually use them:=20
- Certainly not in production? Which limits the amount of exposure such =
a feature gets to real world usage, therefore limiting the amount of =
insight in the usefulness too.
- A branch for a future version of your code? But the experimental =
feature could disappear anytime again, do you want to rely on the =
feature at some point becoming standard?

My $.02,
- Chris