Re: [PECL-DEV] New "PECL"

On 12/5/2023 8:45 AM, Derick Rethans wrote:
> Hi there!
> 
> Within the PHP Foundation, we have been talking for a while as what to
> do with PECL, and its website.
> 
> The code is old, and hard to maintain. And the database is full of
> mojibake. It is also an outdated method of installing things, especially
> because userland code is so much easier to handle through Composer.
> 
> Through the Sovereign Tech Fund (https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/) the
> Foundation has acquired some funding to improve this situation.
> 
> Hence, to start of replacing PECL with something applicable for this
> decade, we started working on a requirements document:
> 
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_N0E9xo3jn9aKrIZHIbTYaY5lXw71BpSO6-it4cRpDo
> 
> In this first stage, we would like to invite you in commenting on the
> document (either inline, or here).
> 
> Please keep in mind that this is a requirements document, and should not
> contain either design or implementation details. Once we have thought
> about these details as well, this will be turned into an RFC.
> 
> cheers,
> Derick

My only thought about this is that the current PECL ecosystem existed 
(and exists) as an "official repository" long before GitHub and other 
options existed.  The new tool should be able to pull in "unofficial" 
packages too that don't depend on going through an approval process.  Of 
course, warning the user that "installing packages from unofficial 
channels is potentially dangerous" before blindly marching forward.

Every extension author would then have to build Windows (and maybe other 
OS) binaries themselves and deploy them in their own package 
repositories.  That might annoy some people and reduce the amount of 
Windows support that exists, but the automated Windows PECL build system 
has been broken for a VERY long time now, which already makes extension 
development for Windows rather difficult.

This approach would largely remove pecl.php.net from the picture.  The 
only reason for it to continue to exist would be to support older PHP 
and also function as an archive.  A simple JSON file of official 
packages on GitHub (or elsewhere) is all that would be required to 
replace the entire PECL website.

I have some suggestions about how to create sane, functional 
cross-architecture build profiles when you are ready for that kind of 
input.  It's a novel/innovative area I've been exploring lately 
elsewhere and already produces consistent, reproducible environments for 
doing builds.

-- 
Thomas Hruska
CubicleSoft President

CubicleSoft has over 80 original open source projects and counting.
Plus a couple of commercial/retail products.

What software are you looking to build?