On Sat, Aug 31, 2013 at 1:05 PM, Johannes Schlüter <johan...@schlueters.de>wrote:
> Hi, > > there has been some chatter about windows.php.net, which drives me to > the question: Do we need that site? Why and for what? > > Few data items: > * The "news" on w.p.n are not really maintained and provide > outdated info. > * Downloads are not using our 90 world-wide mirrors but a single > site giving worse connection quality than needed > * Snapshots on that site are outdated since more than a year (one > can find newer ones when looking at a small note) > * Team lists three people I don't know (might be my fault) who > probably aren't part of the php.net community (what ever that > is) and in general I don't understand the need for extra > credits. > * The site can only be updated by a small group of people > different requests to broaden this (i.e. by updating from git > like other php.net sites) have been rejected (or at least > ignored, i.e. bug #64277) > > My idea would be to > * shut down most of windows.php.net > * Provide downloads via our mirrors. This might need work on a > nice downloads page, probably some configuration to make sure we > comply to US crypto export stuff (i.e. no U.S. servers for d/l) > and probably a different approach to provision the distributions > directory (git is not thaaat usable with these tons of "large" > binary files) > * either integrate snaps with snaps.php.net or create a limited > w.p.n site doing only that and.. > * handle QA releases similar to snaps, if distributed from w.p.n > provide direct links from qa.php.net > * integrate team listing with credits, where needed > > johannes > > > > The downloads section of windows.php.net is regularly updated. It currently hosts 5.3.3, released 10 days ago. The snaps and news are a bit outdated, but I'd say the solution to that is to encourage more participation, not shut it down completely. I'm not sure which team members you're referring to, but I know that three of them work at Microsoft in Redmond and are very involved in helping to maintain the Windows build of PHP. I know them all personally; Matt Ficken was actually my replacement when my contract expired and I decided not to renew. If those are the three you were referring to, I can tell you they work very hard and are actively working with Pierre; at least, they were the last I heard. I think it makes sense for Windows to have its own subdomain site because there are a number of differences between it and a standard Linux build. I do agree that the news and snaps sections should be updated more regularly (this has been a problem there for years), and maybe the best way to do that would be to give more people access. That said, I think removing it would be a bit drastic. --Kris
