PHP_CodeSniffer: Patchlevel updates break our Coding Standards

Hi,


We've build our own coding standard on top of the Generic and PEAR
coding standards:

> <ruleset name="NRT3">
>   <rule ref="Generic">
>     <exclude name="Generic.Classes.DuplicateClassName" />
>      ...
>   <rule ref="PEAR">
>     <exclude name="PEAR.Files.IncludingFile" />
>     ...
>   </rule>
> 
>   <rule ref="Netresearch" />
> 
>   <exclude-pattern>*/ext_emconf.php</exclude-pattern>
> </ruleset>

With nearly every PHP_CodeSniffer patchlevel release, we had to adjust
our own coding standard because the rules changed.

Most recently, 1.4.4 added a
> "php files must not contain newlines at the end"
sniff, which meant we had to adjust our standard again.

PEAR's backwards compatibility[1] rules are very strict, and they are
something I could always rely on. PHP_CodeSniffer seems to have broken
with this model.

Greg, please use patch level updates for bug fixes, not to introduce
new features. Use feature level updates to introduce them.

The PEAR rules are basically the same as what's now known as "semantic
versioning"[2] and widly supported.

x.y.z
- change in x: big changes/rewrite
- change in y: new features level
- change in z: bug fixes

[1] http://pear.php.net/group/docs/20040226-vn.php
[2] http://semver.org/

-- 
Regards/Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Christian Weiske

-= Geeking around in the name of science since 1982 =-