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To: Lester Caine <lester@lsces.co.uk>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Bringing users along ...
From: rasmus@lerdorf.com (Rasmus Lerdorf)

On 08/01/2012 05:38 AM, Lester Caine wrote:
> Andrew Faulds wrote:
>>> Then can you explain why <?= has stopped working on shared hosting on
>>> a number
>>> >of ISP's who have recently updated from 5.2 to 5.3 ...
>> Which? "A number of ISP's"? How many are we talking about?
>> Also, is it our problem if ISPs changed their configuration during an
>> upgrade?
>> How do we know it's our fault? Debian or RedHat or some other common base
>> distribution may have changed the configuration - you realise that
>> they are most
>> likely using a slightly modified version from a distribution, and use the
>> distribution defaults, or a modified version of that, yes? Probably
>> not the
>> official PHP version directly built from source, I'd figure.
>>
>>> >The default on PHP5.3 is to switch 'short_open_tag' off? which also
>>> disables
>>> ><?=
>> I'm fairly sure Rasmus said it wasn't. And, being Rasmus, I think I
>> can trust
>> him on that;)
>>
>> (I don't really use short tags, so I don't know myself)
> 
> The default if it's not included in the .ini is ON, but the sample
> .ini's both switch it off, and that is what the distributions follow
> when creating a clean install.
> 
> ALL that was required when the problem was identified was that <?= was
> handled in PHP5.3 the same way it IS now handled in PHP5.4 and the
> problem would not exist. This is an example of not thinking through to
> production a simple change in the core PHP ...

Well, perhaps in your particular case, but that would still have broken
apps that actually use short_open_tags as opposed to just the short echo
tag. If you have no control over your php.ini and whoever controls it
decides to change it and your app breaks, then your beef should be with
them, not with us. We try to make sure apps don't break from one version
to another if you keep your config the same. We will guide and warn as
appropriate and let people know via the Upgrading guides what the
ramifications are of the various changes.

Also most ISPs provide .htaccess and short_open_tag is a PHP_INI_PERDIR
setting so it is user-settable in the .htaccess. Are you sure the 3 ISPs
you mentioned all disallow .htaccess while at the same time changing
their global php.ini config such that it breaks your apps?

-Rasmus