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Date: Wed, 01 Aug 2012 07:19:42 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Bringing users along ...
From: lester@lsces.co.uk (Lester Caine)

Rasmus Lerdorf wrote:
>> Having just been helping another unsophisticated user, the growing
>> >problem of incompatibility between versions is starting to hit harder.
>> >So can developers please start taking a little more care with the
>> >support of existing users!
> Lester, we get it. Your job is to maintain and support legacy code and
> you are grumpy about it. You have posted about it repeatedly for years.
> And as much as you don't think we do enough, we actually put a lot of
> emphasis on not breaking backward compatibility. But it is always a
> trade off. Every new feature, bug fix or security fix introduces some
> level of backward compatibility issue. We try to minimize those BC
> breaks, but they will continue to happen. You will just have to  find a
> way to manage it.

At the moment it would seem that 'upgrades' are spiralling out of control 
everywhere :(

I'm currently having to buy extra monitors and take them out to site simply 
because some git at M$ has decided that Windows XP can only be used if every 
display has one attached! The bulk of my infrastructure is 'headless' as far as 
the desktop, as the remote displays are only controlled over the network. LINUX 
has added the same 'improvement' so that none of my servers run properly as they 
are attached to KVM's and will no longer boot up with the right screen layout. 
The fix is to replace thousands of pounds worth of hardware :( I can't stop 
windows/linux updates as the local IT people require that they run.

The current raft of PHP problems arise from the fact that "we actually put a lot 
of emphasis on not breaking backward compatibility" seems just to be lip service 
to the real problem ... Taking stuff out in PHP5.4 would be fine if people are 
upgrading from PHP5.3, but they are not. The bulk of the live code is still on 
PHP5.2. Telling me that this is my problem is just another kick in the teeth! 
Helping to solve the problem would also help everybody else upgrade TO PHP5.4?

UNTIL the whole of the PHP infrastructure is brought up to the current 
'standards', can we at least have a supported version of PHP that actually 
supports what is being shipped. Having spent weeks 'just fixing the errors that 
E_STRICT reports', I am now at the stage of having to fix PEAR so that it is 
strict compliant. "just have to find a way to manage it" was asking here if 
anybody is doing ANYTHING about it, but that seems to have fizzled out again :(

Add to this the fun getting Apache 2.4 configured with PHP and my old framework, 
it is no wonder I grumpy ... I would much rather be adding functionality and 
working on NEW stuff than fixing the problems other people leave behind. And I 
don't need any of the new PHP5.3/44 features to write my own new code.

-- 
Lester Caine - G8HFL
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