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Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 15:59:20 -0500
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To: internals@lists.php.net
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] PHP Language Specification
From: ben@benramsey.com (Ben Ramsey)

On Jul 23, 2014, at 1:59 PM, Rowan Collins <rowan.collins@gmail.com> =
wrote:
> On the flip side, there is definitely value in representatives from =
other implementations having a voice in changes that affect them, but =
that could just mean ensuring that members of those projects are =
involved within the current framework.

In this way, the de facto concept of =93PHP=94 becomes the language =
specification, rather than any given implementation. All implementors =
should have input on the direction of the language specification. Again, =
returning to that idea of thinking =93spec first.=94

We might refer to the PHP Group implementation (sometimes called the =
=93Zend PHP=94 implementation by other implementations) as the canonical =
implementation of the specification, but that=92s because the PHP Group, =
which owns the language specification, also owns the canonical =
implementation.

This got me thinking about the whole version number debate. With a =
language specification, to what does the version number refer? The state =
of the language specification, or the state of a given implementation of =
the specification? Right now, the number refers to the state of the PHP =
Group implementation, and implementations like HippyVM and HHVM say that =
they are compatible with Zend PHP 5.x. Will we version the language =
specification separately, and individual releases of various =
implementations (including the PHP Group implementation) will state that =
they are compatible with version X of the specification?

-Ben=