Re: [PHP-DEV] Let's make a 5.7 release

On 08/16/2014 12:52 AM, Pierre Joye wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 12:49 AM, David Soria Parra <[email protected]> wrote:
>> On 2014-08-15, Pierre Joye <[email protected]> wrote:
<snip>
>> Let me summerize a few things that have come up:
>>
>>   (1) phpng doesn't justify PHP7
>>   It does. It's a complete new engine. It has performance improvements. Where
>>   do you draw the line of what justifies a PHP 7? It's a major BC break and we
>>   needd a major version for it
>
>
> No it does not. Even if it would do, that's not something I can live
> with in the next 10 years. As I repeatedly said, with explanations
> why.

Just a heretical question from someone who has no clue about PHP core:

What speaks against having PHP 8 one or two years after PHP 7?


I like the idea of

- having PHP 5.7 introducing deprecation warnings without additional 
features (and perhaps some cleanings regarding the spec?)

- full concentration on PHP 7 regarding phpng (including AST & co) and 
cleanings according to the spec.

- PHP 8 with other improvements that are currently planed for PHP 7. 
(Perhaps it's even possible to introduce most deprecation warnings of 
planned changes for 8 in 7 and 5.7.)


Regarding adoption: Agile teams/projects are able to follow the path 
from 5.6 to 5.7 (if needed) up to 7 and 8. Slow teams/projects can 
migrate from 5.6 to 5.7 "easily" and later to 8. Adoption to PHP 7 would 
not be a KPI of the PHP project.

Regarding branch maintenance: Support for 5.7 could be extended and for 
7 could be shortened if announced early enough (latest at GA of 7.0).

Regarding PHP project's project management: That would be release early, 
release often. Of course, extensions need to be changed twice for PHP 7 
and 8 - but the amount of changes should be almost the same.

A side note regarding the spec: I would not waste time to write/discuss 
a formal spec that describes all oddities of 5.6/7 or force 5.6/7 to 
follow a spec too much. The perspective of the spec is PHP 7 that is the 
first version where compliance to the spec is needed. (Probably Facebook 
has other plans. But I think one year to get it right on both sides - 
the spec and the implementation - is totally ok.)

Regards

Thomas