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Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:14:23 +0100
Reply-To: Marcus Boerger <helly@php.net>
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To: Antony Dovgal <tony@daylessday.org>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] why we must get rid of unicode.semantics switch ASAP
From: helly@php.net (Marcus Boerger)

Hello Antony,

  +1 + thanks, it is simply a ppain in th eass to develop with

7) It alone is responsible for at least 10% slowdown.

marcus

Monday, January 21, 2008, 3:38:00 PM, you wrote:

> 6 reasons why we must to get rid of The Switch ASAP
> ----------------------------------------------------
> 1) it gives users false sense of "compatibility" when no compatibility is even planned;

> 2) it's supposed to mean compatibility, but can be changed only in php.ini, which
> means users would still have to maintain 2 versions of their software: 
> one for On and second for Off.

> 3) 2+ bigger codebase [1] (with lots of duplicates because we have to do 
> same things in native and unicode modes);

> 4) increases the maintenance costs a lot [2];

> 5) this is yet another reincarnation of ze1_compatibility switch.
Which is the worst mistake ever imo - If you wanted PHP 4 you would simply
use PHP 4. Now if you want PHP 5 just damn use PHP 5.
> I believe most of the people here agree it was a total failure - untested, unneeded and,
> most important, not working thing that complicates user's and developer's lives.
> Those who want compatibility may and will stay with PHP5 forever, 
> those who need Unicode support will use PHP6.

> 6) we need to remove the switch ASAP and make PHP6 Unicode-only before people spend
> their time doing useless "compatibility ports" of their applications.


> ---
> [1]
> http://cvs.php.net/viewvc.cgi/php-src/ext/standard/string.c?revision=1.664&view=markup
> Don't click this link if you want to sleep well today.

> [2] Here is a typical problem: http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=42861
> Try to fix it without looking at the solution and you'll see what I mean.

> -- 
> Wbr, 
> Antony Dovgal




Best regards,
 Marcus