Due to the current discussion on php-dev@ relating to debug_backtrace() and the migration of new users to Zend2 and PHPv5, I've decided to come up with a list of more effective methods that we could impose to make sure that everyone upgrades to PHPv5. This list is a result of comprehensive surveys polling 99.6% of the userbase on PHP's 6 million+ domains (and over 1 million IP addresses). Here is my modest proposal... 1) Add a security bug to PHPv4, and only provide the fix with PHPv5. Nobody wants to have an insecure version of PHP on their servers so everybody will happily upgrade, hey, we might even be able to introduce case sensitivity at this point! 2) Make PHPv4 segfault on a random request, tell users this is a design flaw that has been fixed in PHPv5 (when really its just enabling the DOMXML and XSLT extension by default.) 3) If we don't really want to punish users, we can just pretend that we have a security bug, users are stupid, and don't bother reading the source code. They'd believe you if you told them there was a remote root exploit whenever PHP called the count () function. 4) Offer a DotCom sacrifice to the gods, I know some companies perfect for this task. 5) Remove features from PHPv4 and re-add them in PHPv5, its been shown that most PHP users would not use PHPv4 if it didn't have a count() function, therefore, of course, they'd upgrade to PHPv5. 6) Finally, perhaps the most effective method, we can only enable debug_backtrace() in PHPv5, which more than security bugs, random segfaults, improved speed and OO support, and naturally, DotCom sacrifices, will make PHP users upgrade to PHPv5. Now of course, we could just provide an easy and painless migration to PHPv5, like we did with PHPv4 (I was around then, and we did make it as painless as possible, without supporting two versions), backporting a few important features, security/bug fixes, but trying to focus development on PHPv5 (but not to exclude work that has already done on PHPv4), and respect evolution. But, that's not what 99.6% of users want.... Ah well! -Sterling Ps, some related notes: 1) This message is meant in good humor, don't take it to seriously. I don't think my INBOX can take another flamewar, I'm reading my mail via and unthreaded webmail client (I'm _really_ missing mutt's Thread-Delete feature). 2) I don't think its right to point to Zend as the source of Zeev and Andi's disagreements. They work for Zend, yes its true, anyone in doubt of that, raise your hand (whether Andi is just Zeev's alter-ego is still up to question however :). But I don't see the direct benefit of Zend 2 to Zend unless it means the continued success of PHP, which is really a shared benefit. Furthermore, just because they disagree with you, doesn't mean its to support Zend, the evil branch of Microsoft. They could just be wrong, or vice-versa.
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