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Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:49:05 +0100
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To: Nikita Popov <nikita.ppv@gmail.com>
Cc: "internals@lists.php.net" <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Proposal for serious BC compatibility aka language versioning
From: thbley+php@gmail.com (Thomas Bley)

On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 11:22 PM, Nikita Popov <nikita.ppv@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 12:36 PM, Karoly Negyesi <karoly@negyesi.net> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> So, if we are talking about PHP 6, then the opening <?php tag should be
>> accompanied by the version it was written for, it was tested with and then
>> the engine could switch to a compatibility mode for that version.
>>
>> Seems to me that this would solve the problem where a host can't upgrade to
>> a more modern version for fear of breaking old code. Consequently, open
>> source packages -- like Drupal I am deeply involved with -- can't use more
>> modern PHP versions decreasing the "push" for hosts to upgrade. This is a
>> devilish circle and it'd be great to break it.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Karoly Negyesi
>>
>
> At least two points why this makes no sense whatsoever:
>
> 1) One would have to maintain or at least keep around all previous versions
> of the engine and the libraries. That would be a shitload of cruft and a
> lot of maintenance work.
>
> 2) Different behavior per-file is not feasible as components in both files
> interact. If you have one <?php6 file and one <?php5 file and both interact
> (like, you know, calling a function from one file in the other one) you
> will have a pretty hard time decided what behavior this should result in.
> The <?php6 behavior or the <?php5 one? So something like this can only be
> done on a per-request basis (rather than per-file). And to do this on a
> per-request basis you already have all the means. Just run two different
> PHP versions. No issue with that; doesn't require no further support from
> PHP.
>
> Nikita

> Just run two different PHP versions.

Using Debian/Ubuntu, I have "python2.6", "python2.7" and "python3"
packages, but only one version of "php5-fpm".
Maybe it would be better to have "php5.3-fpm" and "php5.4-fpm", using
/etc/php5.3 and /etc/php5.4 ?
Esp. for Travis-CI it would be much better to have separate packages
than running custom workarounds.

Regards,
Thomas