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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] who can vote
From: rasmus@lerdorf.com (Rasmus Lerdorf)

On 11/09/2011 07:01 PM, guilhermeblanco@gmail.com wrote:
> My short version of this entire email is very simple question. Is PHP
> meritocracy based?

It is.

> I want to highlight another RFC where I saw the before mentioned
> meritocracy fallen into the cracks.
> http://wiki.php.net/rfc/shortsyntaxforarrays

Except that is a terrible example because that was eventually accepted.
But yes, meritocracy means that the core developers have more say than
userland folks and if 14 active core developers vote against something
and 9 vote for, as per your example, then there is enough reason to not
implement it. Or, as was the case with this feature, it just took a bit
longer to get more core folks on board before it could be implemented.

> If PHP is a meritocracy based language, I
> thought that everyone have equally voice over it. 

I think you are misunderstanding what a meritocracy means. It means
exactly the opposite of everyone having an equal voice. The people who
do the bulk of the work on the code have the most say over their own
code. And that doesn't make it a hobby, that makes it an open source
project created by volunteers.

From your example of the short syntax for arrays. If you check the
original voting, I voted for the feature. If this was a dictatorship and
not a meritocracy then I would have just pushed ahead and implemented
the feature, but with 14 high-merit votes against it I obviously
couldn't do that.

So yes, the conclusion stands. If a majority of core developers are
against a feature, it really doesn't matter how many userland people
want something. Core people don't vote against things for the fun of it.
They tend to have legitimate concerns. You may not agree with those
concerns, but that doesn't mean they aren't real and they are coming
from the perspective of someone who has a lot more experience than other
voters for a feature. Now, the way to change that dynamic is for more
people to become involved and help with the core of the language. Help
with fixing bugs, fixing test cases, reviewing bug reports and through
this effort become core contributors who can then vote the next time the
feature is brought up and push it through at that point.

-Rasmus