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 PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:00:27 +0200
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] extensions status, to move to pecl or to drop
From: mls@pooteeweet.org (Lukas Kahwe Smith)


On 14.06.2008, at 22:32, Lester Caine wrote:

> Pierre Joye wrote:
>> What I'm asking you is to help me to actually have a controllable and
>> testable firebird drivers in PHP. I will do my best to help you to  
>> get
>> things fixed and to provide the best windows binaries. However, one
>> thing is sure, I can't do it alone. For two reasons, I'm not a
>> firebird user and I have to learn it and I do not have the time or
>> resources to do it.
>> Please let me know if you or the firebird team is ready to help us to
>> improve the firebird support in php and in the end, to keep it in  
>> php.
>
> THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE CURRENT FIREBIRD SUPPORT SO WHY DO  
> WE NEED TO IMPROVE IT? If something was missing it would be a  
> different matter, but all that is missing is a UNICODE only base to  
> work from.
>
> I have two problems with BUILDING windows binaries myself.
>
> Being a long time Borland C++ house all of our compile system is set  
> up for Borland Builder5/6 and we have never moved on from that  
> simple because all of the new work is being done as PHP web  
> applications.


Lester .. everybody has work and bills to pay etc. But the fact of the  
matter is that PHP still needs to keep going .. and hopefully not in  
spite of this .. but because people make enough money using PHP that  
they can help in doing PHP.

So Pierre is hitting on some realities. We are rebuilding the entire  
windows build infrastructure from scratch .. or rather the windows  
team is. PHP has traditionally made it really easy for people to  
develop apps on every OS. So supporting something just for *nix is  
going to confuse our user base. Of course *nix will always get the  
bulk of the focus, but just saying something works fine on *nix so  
nothing is wrong if it does not build in windows is not an option.

What Pierre was also pointing out is if something is used by so few  
people that there is only a single person who could in theory have an  
interest in fixing this, but for personal reason is unable to do so  
because he does not have any time cycles to spare (which is of course  
entirely ok .. its a reality of life), then maybe this feature is not  
worthy of core attention.

So if you or any one in the Firebird/Interbase community does have the  
time and skills, please make it known to him that Firebird/Interbase  
support is on the way out of PHP. Getting issues resolved in every  
other minor release is not an option. Support needs to be solid in  
every minor release.

And while you complain about PHP 5.3 and the lack of PHP 6. It might  
remind you about the situation you just described. People have to  
juggle their PHP dev time with their professional and private life's  
and apparently getting PHP 6 out the door does not put food on the  
table for enough people. Again this sounds strikingly similar to the  
situation you described about why you personal have no (business)  
interest in working on fixing up the windows builds for PHP 5.3. So  
please can you stop the shouting.

regards,
Lukas Kahwe Smith
mls@pooteeweet.org