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Date: 27 Jun 2003 12:25:39 -0400
Subject: bundling libxml2
From: sterling@bumblebury.com (Sterling Hughes)

Hi,

So I figure I'll restart this discussion.  There are a couple of reasons
I want to bundle libxml2:

1) XML support is crucial.  You may not like XML, but its the standard
for data exchange these days, and is incredibly important when
interoperating with external services.  A PHP installation should simply
not exist without XML support, if it does, then imho we've done
something wrong.  Applications that are distributed need to rely on
certain features in PHP, XML is one such feature.  I think this much has
already been agreed upon.

2) Libxml2 may be installed everywhere, but the version we rely upon
isn't available everywhere.  As witnessed by a message to the list by
michael, and a problem that someone else had over IRC.  Its fine to
allow people to use external versions of libxml2, however, we need a
recent version to operate.  For example, schema support is pretty
essential, as its becoming the new DTD format for XML (and is required
for proper SOAP support).

Its further helpful that users can rely on a certain implementation of
libxml2 distributed with a certain version of PHP.

Anyhow, I thought I'd again bring this up before the beta.  What do
people think?

-Sterling

-- 
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from 
bad judgement. 
    - Fred Brooks