Hi all,
First time poster here... Just hoping to get some information.
It says on bugs.php.net that the best way to 'support' a request, is to
vote on it.
However, the most voted feature requests rarely get so much as a reply from
a PHP developer, let alone an implementation.
I'm not being critical, I just wanna understand what is the official PHP
team's stance on this issue?
It seems to me there are two ways to submit requests now days - one via
RFC, and one via the bug system.
On one hand, I've witnessed some good RFCs come to life rather quickly...
On the other, I've seen highly rated feature requests in the bug system lay
unattended for years and decades.
So that just makes me wonder.
Is anyone even checking the bug system for requests anymore?
If the team feels strongly not to implement certain features, could you
just reply to those tickets and close them?
Would it be better to create RFCs instead?
If so, how do we, mere users, go about doing it?
Since it is not a open wiki, is there a person we can contact, who will
create an RFC for us?
Is there any other way to get response to a feature request? Can we post to
internals about it?
In general, what is the correct way to post feature requests if we want
them to have any chance of getting accepted (or at least responded to)?
The only path that's available to regular users - the bug tracker - seems
to be utterly unresponsive, and that is frustrating.
Again, I'm not trying to be negative, and maybe there is a FAQ somewhere
with all the answers, that I'm just not seeing...
Hopefully you can clarify this for me.
Thank you.
So that just makes me wonder.
Is anyone even checking the bug system for requests anymore?
If the team feels strongly not to implement certain features, could you
just reply to those tickets and close them?
Would it be better to create RFCs instead?
We don't have the resources to go through and thoroughly evaluate each
feature request. A couple of developers will read each one and if it
resonates with them personally they will do something about it.
Otherwise they leave it for another developer to address later.
Some numbers. We have had 2899 feature requests submitted. Out of these,
605 are still open. 1134 have been implemented. 705 rejected because
they weren't valid features. 322 rejected as "Won't fix" for various
reasons. The rest are in various other states such as Duplicate, and
awaiting feedback. So feature requests do get processed eventually.
-Rasmus
We don't have the resources to go through and thoroughly evaluate each
feature request. A couple of developers will read each one and if it
resonates with them personally they will do something about it.
Otherwise they leave it for another developer to address later.Some numbers. We have had 2899 feature requests submitted. Out of these,
605 are still open. 1134 have been implemented. 705 rejected because
they weren't valid features. 322 rejected as "Won't fix" for various
reasons. The rest are in various other states such as Duplicate, and
awaiting feedback. So feature requests do get processed eventually.-Rasmus
That is actually a promising statistic.
However, is there a predictable process for picking some requests over others?
If it's based on whether it resonated with the PHP dev who happened to
look at it, why even have a voting feature (and suggest that it
somehow affects the bug's priority)?
I understand this is a free software project, and that resources are
limited. And that you can't force contributors to work on features
they don't personally like.
But I would have expected the bugs with hundreds of votes and/or
comments to be inspected first... Or at least after 10 years... Am I
being unreasonable?
Just a quick reply from my phone:
anybody can register a wiki account and anybody can get rfc karma after
sending a mail to the php-webmaster mailing list (this is a basic spam
protection).
about the rfc vs bug tracker: the wiki and the rfc process came later than
the bugtracker.
I would open a feature request ticket if I don't know how to proceed further
or I don't have the time to create and push an RFC. Otherwise I would go
with an rfc: albeit it requires more work from the reporter but makes up for
it because it provides much bigger visibility and guranteed response from
the developers.
Thank you, that makes more sense to me.
That is actually a promising statistic.
However, is there a predictable process for picking some requests over others?
If it's based on whether it resonated with the PHP dev who happened to
look at it, why even have a voting feature (and suggest that it
somehow affects the bug's priority)?
I understand this is a free software project, and that resources are
limited. And that you can't force contributors to work on features
they don't personally like.
But I would have expected the bugs with hundreds of votes and/or
comments to be inspected first... Or at least after 10 years... Am I
being unreasonable?
Most questions in this vein draw this magic line in the sand between
developers and users. The truth is that this is a completely mythical
line. Everybody is a developer, some just have more experience than
others. A feature request that is interesting enough should eventually
take care of itself because someone out there will write a decent
implementation and, if the feature is big enough, an accompanying RFC.
-Rasmus
Hi!
However, is there a predictable process for picking some requests over others?
Yes. Creating and RFC and discussing it on the list raises chance of
resolution (one way or another) of the request.
For smaller feature that does not warrant RFC, pull request on github
and note on internals would help too.
In general, if the person is willing to invest some time in getting the
feature considered and implemented - including explaining why it is a
good idea, etc. on the list - the chances for it are greater than if he
limits his commitment to putting it into the bug DB and letting whoever
needs it to pick it up. With the latter scenario it still can happen,
but the former gives it a better chance.
But I would have expected the bugs with hundreds of votes and/or
comments to be inspected first... Or at least after 10 years... Am I
being unreasonable?
That depends on the request ;)
Stanislav Malyshev, Software Architect
SugarCRM: http://www.sugarcrm.com/
(408)454-6900 ext. 227
Just a quick reply from my phone:
anybody can register a wiki account and anybody can get rfc karma after
sending a mail to the php-webmaster mailing list (this is a basic spam
protection).
about the rfc vs bug tracker: the wiki and the rfc process came later than
the bugtracker.
I would open a feature request ticket if I don't know how to proceed
further or I don't have the time to create and push an RFC. Otherwise I
would go with an rfc: albeit it requires more work from the reporter but
makes up for it because it provides much bigger visibility and guranteed
response from the developers.
2012.05.06. 16:28, "Dmitri Dmitrison" dmitri200@gmail.com ezt írta:
Hi all,
First time poster here... Just hoping to get some information.
It says on bugs.php.net that the best way to 'support' a request, is to
vote on it.
However, the most voted feature requests rarely get so much as a reply from
a PHP developer, let alone an implementation.I'm not being critical, I just wanna understand what is the official PHP
team's stance on this issue?
It seems to me there are two ways to submit requests now days - one via
RFC, and one via the bug system.On one hand, I've witnessed some good RFCs come to life rather quickly...
On the other, I've seen highly rated feature requests in the bug system lay
unattended for years and decades.So that just makes me wonder.
Is anyone even checking the bug system for requests anymore?
If the team feels strongly not to implement certain features, could you
just reply to those tickets and close them?
Would it be better to create RFCs instead?If so, how do we, mere users, go about doing it?
Since it is not a open wiki, is there a person we can contact, who will
create an RFC for us?
Is there any other way to get response to a feature request? Can we post to
internals about it?
In general, what is the correct way to post feature requests if we want
them to have any chance of getting accepted (or at least responded to)?The only path that's available to regular users - the bug tracker - seems
to be utterly unresponsive, and that is frustrating.
Again, I'm not trying to be negative, and maybe there is a FAQ somewhere
with all the answers, that I'm just not seeing...Hopefully you can clarify this for me.
Thank you.