Newsgroups: php.internals
Path: news.php.net
Xref: news.php.net php.internals:35871
Mailing-List: contact internals-help@lists.php.net; run by ezmlm
Received-SPF: pass (pb1.pair.com: domain gmail.com designates 64.233.184.230 as permitted sender)
DomainKey-Status: bad
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws;
        d=gmail.com; s=gamma;
        h=message-id:date:from:reply-to:sender:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:x-google-sender-auth;
        b=mqJfZ9mtgzMgrH9q2+msOg9ZQTfRgMNYpYrdJ93zEyA47ix1dM2v/L2AG/gqnUzjyFrGiaJDX//D0t6W9wHtc6uyjtxKpgDRB+g5xSpxJwxDCvcuSOAo6G9073kqA9hmJMD9NUna1jQIyoLgNhGUoD9Ed8SF1KktrFG0xM0SV3g=
Message-ID: <234b196e0803011115t31dd004iba76f5d7ac9125b8@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2008 20:15:49 +0100
Reply-To: till@php.net
Sender: klimpong@gmail.com
To: internals@lists.php.net
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline
Subject: 5.2.5 and static calls
From: till@php.net (till)

Hi!

(Apologies for starting a new thread.)

I compiled 5.2.5 last night and noticed that it effectively breaks all
static calls which have no static keyword assigned in the function's
definition (sorry, a bit clumsy here). I *thought* this had been
discussed before and was due to 5.3 but then it had been decided to
move this into E_STRICT (again) and wait off with the major BC break
for PHP6. Apparently I perceived wrong, none the less I believe this
needs to be fixed (= removed) ASAP.

Reason is - this breaks a dozen apps out there, and while I certainly
agree with everyone that those apps and scripts need to be updated -
the reality is that it will take some time. It would be sufficient if
PHP6 announces such a major break, I don't see how a "minor" release
like PHP 5.2.5 can do this. Especially since it worked (including
E_STRICT) in 5.2.3 (and I believe 5.2.4 also).

I see all the technical reasons and quite frankly - they don't matter here.

PHP relies on a user base which is not strictly technical. The
adoption of PHP does not just come from its great concept and ease of
learning but also due to hard facts - such as, there are CMS, gallery
scripts, blogs, webmails and forums which people want to use. Those
people don't care why their app doesn't work when you change from
5.2.x to another 5.2.x. Effectively this means more FUD about moving
to PHP5 is spread and people stay with PHP4 a lot longer because PHP5
for them is totally unpredictable.

I can totally see how you can translate it for them that it breaks
when you switch from 4 to 5, or even 5 to 6 - hell, especially 4 to 6.
But not in what I would consider a minor version (minor in regard to
the version number).

Last but not least - is there anything (a compile flag, etc.) one can
disabled now to "fix" this issue? Or do you suggest a rollback to
5.2.4 (or 5.2.3)?

Thanks,
Till

P.S.
Please CC me on your replies.