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Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 11:17:41 -0700
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To: Derick Rethans <derick@php.net>, 
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] On BC and not being evil (Was: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC]
 Integer Semantics)
From: smalyshev@sugarcrm.com (Stas Malyshev)

Hi!

>> And since you're targetting the next major release, BC isn't an issue.
> 
> This sort of blanket statements that "Backwards Compatibility is not an
> issue" with a new major version is extremely unwarranted. *Extreme care*
> should be taken when deciding to break Backwards Compatibility. It
> should not be "oh we have a major new version so we can break all the
> things"™.

I agree. Major means we *can* break BC, if there's a reason good enough,
but that doesn't mean we get to break BC *for free*. We do need to
carefully weight it each time and ensure it is worth it, not dismiss it
with "oh, it's PHP 7, so we can do anything we want, BC is no longer a
concern". We have millions of people using PHP 5, and the goal is for
almost all of them to eventually use PHP 7, otherwise there's no point
in it. Each BC break creates another hurdle on the way to it. We should
take it seriously.
-- 
Stanislav Malyshev, Software Architect
SugarCRM: http://www.sugarcrm.com/