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To: PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2016 13:32:03 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Is the "No BC Breaks in Minor Releases" policy
 enforceable?
From: rowan.collins@gmail.com (Rowan Collins)

Hi Joe,

On 16/06/2016 05:40, Joe Watkins wrote:
>    > Please don't let's make it harder to go from 7.0 to 7.1 than it was
> from 5.6 to 7.0.
>
>    Can we reduce hyperbole to nil, please.

Sorry, yes, that was a bit hyperbolic on my part. I do think there is 
the risk of making 7.0 to 7.1 as awkward an upgrade as 5.3 to 5.4, though.

The main problem I've encountered in 5.4 is the removal of the 
already-deprecated call-time pass-by-reference, because it is an 
invasive change that can't be worked around: you can't even test what 
other impact the upgrade had until you've fixed it.

And at least that one could be detected with static code analysis; I'm 
not even sure how to know if a code base would be affected by too_few_args.


>    Before work starts on PHP 8, we need to have something worth
> branching, just as we needed for 7, and 6.

Again, this idea of a minimum requirement for PHP 8. I still haven't 
seen anyone explain exactly what this means. If we have a bunch of 
breaking changes, and those breaking changes are justified, then we can 
justify a major release.


> The majority have decided that the *extremely minor* BC break is worth the tradeoff.

Absolutely, a majority of voters have indicated that, while a minority 
indicated they would support it in an 8.0 release. There's no reason we 
have to accept "good enough" if we can agree a plan that is even better.

One thing I haven't seen stated very clearly is why there is a rush to 
get this feature into a live release right now, with 7.1 already in 
alpha. Is the plan to release major performance changes in 7.1.x? 
Wouldn't most of those have to wait for 7.2.x anyway?

Regards,
-- 
Rowan Collins
[IMSoP]