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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 02:49 PM, Thomas Bley wrote:
> 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.

Nothing stops you from doing that. Compile as many versions as you want
with different --with-config-file-path settings.

-Rasmus