Re: Remove pre PHP 5.4 documentation

On Wed, 18 Dec 2019 at 01:41, Chris <[email protected]> wrote:

> That the documentation remains where it is, does not pose any danger to
> you or your family. You computer wont melt because of this. Besides,
> this MUST remain untouched as a reference.
>


I hope the contrast between your first sentence and the "MUST" in your last
was deliberately ironic. There are no "dangers" to either keeping or
removing it, but there are costs both ways.

Costs of removing:

* Harder for users who are stuck on old versions to find documentation
relevant to them. (But not impossible; php.net can provide an archive, or
archive.org will have one.)
* Harder for users upgrading from those old versions to see the details of
the changes.

Costs of keeping:

* Harder for contributors to edit the documentation, because they need to
account for the behaviour in old versions.
* More content for translators.
* Harder for readers to see which parts of the documentation apply to them.


I think removing pre-5.4 right now is sensible, because:

* There were many major changes in that version, which would have been in
6.0 if it hadn't been cancelled, so there is presumably lots of content
that could be cleaned up if this was the cut-off.
* 5.3 has been *unsupported* for over five years, and that seems more
relevant than how long ago it was *released*. In contrast, if 8.0 is
released next year, 5.6 will only have been unsupported for two years.


Regards,
-- 
Rowan Tommins
[IMSoP]