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Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2005 12:04:48 -0400
To: Zeev Suraski <zeev@zend.com>
Cc: Rasmus Lerdorf <rasmus@lerdorf.com>, internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] PHP 6.0 Wishlist
From: mbneto@gmail.com (mbneto)

Hi,

>=20
> First of all, in general - I don't subscribe to the school of 'we broke
> something, why not break more'.  With every feature we break, we reduce t=
he
> chances of people upgrading, of legacy apps working, and we reduce the
> overall success chances of the new version.  Compatibility breakup is not
> binary, it accumulates.  The more features are broken, the worse the
> situation becomes.
>=20

I couldn't agree more.

> >1. Remove register_globals completely
> >
> >2. Remove magic_quotes_*
>=20
> Given what I said above, I don't see any motivation to remove
> register_globals or magic_quotes.  I don't see how it buys us anything
> other than pissed off users and hordes of (sometimes exploitable) bugs th=
at
> will result from sloppy audits.  These changes alone would mean that a
> great deal of the applications would have to be 100% audited before an
> upgrade.  Between us, developers welcoming forced labor due to upgrades i=
s
> wishful thinking.  People never like to be forced to go over their or oth=
er
> people's code regardless of the circumstances.
>=20

+1000 for not removing the register_globals.

>=20
> As I'm sure you'd agree, academic purity is not exactly why PHP won the
> hearts of the masses.  I would almost argue the opposite.  Features which
> only bother us due to academic purity are clearly ones we shouldn't
> touch.  Even more so than register_globals and magic_quotes - which are n=
ot
> only impure but also problematic - there's no point forcing people to
> modify their code just because we feel like making PHP more academically
> pure.  Other than creating a huge worldwide mess and slowing down
> migration, we're not going to gain anything (assuming we don't get any
> points for academic purity;  PHP scored 100 when handed in as an academic
> project, by the way :).
>=20
> Even if we forget about the users, and only think about ourselves - unles=
s
> something drastic happens, we're going to look at supporting 4 major
> different versions simultaneously - 4.3/4.4, 5.0, 5.1 and 6.0.  Is it
> really such a great idea to start breaking compatibility beyond what we
> absolutely have to?
>=20
> I think you have some good ideas in that list, and some less good
> ideas.  I'm worried about the wholesale mode that internals@ switched int=
o,
> the almost unanimous "YES!" response, and the overall feeling that sudden=
ly
> with 6.0  breakage comes without a price.  That goes counter to our key
> design goals in the Unicode support, which were work-as-if-nothing-happen=
ed
> when unicode support is disabled.

I sure hope others come to support your way of thinking.   Sometimes
the purist way of thinking can cause more problems than good.