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Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2016 15:55:19 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] orphan extensions cleanup
From: rowan.collins@gmail.com (Rowan Collins)

On 16/08/2016 11:11, Lester Caine wrote:
> There have been several 'attempts' to drop ext/interbase, all well
> documented on this list. PHP developers may not think Firebird is very
> popular, and probably from a PHP base it isn't but it IS used
> extensively in large areas of the World.

Please carefully read Kalle's motivation for dropping it. It has nothing 
to do with how popular Firebird is, and everything to do with who is 
responsible for fixing any serious bugs that crop up *in the 
ext/interbase code*.

Note as well that dropping it doesn't mean taking away your ability to 
use it - it will still be on PECL, and many Linux distros won't even 
change their package name. It's mostly just labelling who is promising 
to maintain it - as long as it's in core, the promise is "it will be 
stable in stable versions of PHP, and security maintained in security 
maintained versions of PHP".

If there is nobody actively maintaining it, that promise is basically a 
lie, so moving it to PECL is just giving it the more honest label of "it 
will be maintained as and when someone volunteers the time for a 
particular issue".

I'm sure everyone agrees is that the ideal situation is *not* to drop 
it, and instead to find someone willing to commit to maintain it. But 
there's no point saying it's maintained if nobody is actually performing 
that role.

Regards,
-- 
Rowan Collins
[IMSoP]