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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Bundling "modern" extensions
From: larry@garfieldtech.com (Larry Garfield)

On 06/06/2011 10:56 AM, Johannes Schlüter wrote:
> On Mon, 2011-06-06 at 10:18 -0500, Larry Garfield wrote:
>> The only way, currently, that projects can predict what a given host
>> will have installed is "bundled in core PHP".  If it's in the core PHP
>> bundle, we can *usually* expect it to be there.  If not, we can
>> *usually* presume it won't be.  That's not a hard and fast rule, but
>> it's the best we've got right now.
> While that rule is not true by far.

I never said it was a *good* rule.  Just that it's the least bad we have 
right now.  In the Drupal project (my home turf) we regularly struggle 
with debating if we can rely on a certain extension or not given that 
it's so hard to predict host behavior.  Even among dedicated servers, 
many of my clients wrinkle their brows in confusion when I talk about 
installing a PECL module more complex than APC.  We really do need some 
predictability in this market.

> Unless we start a certification program ("PHP Certified Hoster" ..
> demanding some specific features etc.) there's little we can do. And I
> doubt we want to do that ;-)

If I had the time I'd consider it, frankly.  We did manage to force the 
issue with PHP 5.2 with the GoPHP5 project.  I once considered expanding 
its scope but never really had the time/energy to drive it.

> One day[tm] I plan to make all this data public with a simple query
> interface.
>
> I'd also be interested in adding such a data collection to other
> software. If you're interested feel free to contact me of list.
>
>
> johannes

I am interested, actually.  Stand by. :-)

--Larry Garfield