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To: Karoly Negyesi <karoly@negyesi.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Proposal for serious BC compatibility aka language
 versioning
From: rasmus@lerdorf.com (Rasmus Lerdorf)

On 02/03/2013 01:48 PM, Karoly Negyesi wrote:
>> We do not consider a change [...] a BC break
> 
> Let me help: backwards compatibility means a host can upgrade a
> package without inducing a lot of support tickets.

Well, that is obviously not realistic. Every change we make has some
level of BC impact. We have to draw a line somewhere. Heck, even fixing
a segfault is technically a BC change because the behaviour from one
version to the next is different. A 100% strict "no BC" rule would mean
we couldn't actually ever fix any bugs. There has to be a line. Our line
is that in minor version upgrades we won't change documented functional
behaviour unless there are extremely serious (usually security-related)
reasons for doing so.

-Rasmus