On 24/06/2018 22:09, Zeev Suraski wrote: >> My position stands: I *strongly* object. If we rush to PHP 8 then it >> will be at >> least 4-5 more years before we have another chance for breakages in PHP 9. We >> can add features yearly. > Fair enough, your position is obviously entirely up to you - I just wanted > to point out that having pushing a major version was never about breaking > things - it was about delivering major new capabilities or performance to > users - with the ability to break things as a side effect. I don't think > I've ever seen nor delivered a PHP 7 presentation that included statements > like "I can't wait to show you all the different things we broke in this new > major version!!!" - this isn't what major versions are about. > > I should also add that my position also stands - there's nothing that > spectacular about breaking things, and for me at least, the celebration of > being able to break things and the yearn to break more things before 4-5 > years pass by is awkward. If we could bring major value with the users being > able to just upgrade without an intense code audit/refactoring cycles, it's a > feature - not a bug as far as I'm concerned. > > That said - it's OK that we break things if the value of breaking them far > outweighs the cost of fixing the consequences of the breakage - and by that I > mean a more prolonged upgrade cycle and a certain degree of user angst.
I'd like to add to that : from the past 15 years we've seen that most Linux distributions didn't really seem to care much about keeping up with PHP versions, seemingly "because it's all PHP 5" (they didn't care much about the major difference between 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 and beyond). Ever since PHP 7 was released, there's been a lot more activity on their end to get their distribution released either with PHP 7( even .1/.2), or add PHP 7.x to an additional repo they support. From that perspective, having a major version makes a lot of sense in keeping the momentum going from the system engineering end of things, ensuring they continuously keep an eye on what the latest version of PHP is. Just my 2 cents as a non-core contributor. Wim -- PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
