Re: Better managing PHP 8.1 updates

On Wed, May 19, 2021, at 6:08 AM, Christoph M. Becker wrote:
> On 18.05.2021 at 22:40, Larry Garfield wrote:
> 
> > Hello, docuzitiens.  A proposal.
> >
> > We generally wait to document anything in a new PHP version until sometime in the betas, often RCs, to avoid confusing people with future functionality.  OK, fine, but that does create a problem of tracking changes so we don't forget anything.
> >
> > For 8.0, there was a manually maintained big punch list: https://github.com/php/php-tasks/issues/26 .  That required manual updates by Girgias, and assumed we remembered everything.
> >
> > I think we can do better for PHP 8.1.
> >
> > Proposal: Instead, let's go ahead and create issue tickets on the docs repo now for any future-8.1 documentation tasks.  Every RFC would need one, plus other stuff that bypasses RFCs.  That's a low-enough barrier that we can also ask/beg/plead people working on core directly to file such tickets too, although we'll likely need to flesh them out a bit.  Anyone with access to manage issues can then tag them for "8.1" (or some name like that).  When filing PRs in the future, then, the PR can include "Resolves #whatever" to auto-close that issue when it gets merged, which will happen directly on GitHub now so the built-in automation all works.
> >
> > Advantages:
> >
> > * A GH issue lets us put in more todo-information than just a bulleted list.
> > * The punch list is just a list of all issues with the 8.1 tag, and is then self-updating.  No need to harass Girgias.
> > * We can start building a task list now, in advance, when stuff is fresh in the appropriate person's memory.
> > * We can assign issues to people (including ourselves) to indicate intent to work on it.
> > * Easier for drive-by contributors to see what needs doing. Odds are they won't know to go look at the php-tasks repository.
> >
> > Thoughts?
> 
> The problem I see with this approach is that we would have to open
> issues for php/doc-en, and I presume that we will get quite some issue
> reports regarding doc bugs.

They aren't?  I didn't realize that wasn't already the case.  I think that's fine, though.  At least, it's better for bug reports to come into GitHub than comments on the site, no?

> Maybe it would be better to label PRs for php/php-src which need
> documentation with "documentation needed" (or so)?
> 
> Christoph

Possibly, but then we have to go digging through already-closed PRs for tagged issues, and then it's a different set of people that have access to add/remove the tags as appropriate.

--Larry Garfield