> -----Original Message----- > From: Olivier Hill [mailto:olivier.h...@gmail.com] > Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2010 10:15 AM > To: Derick Rethans > Cc: PHP Developers Mailing List > Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] PHP 6 > > We need to focus on Unicode more than what some says, whether this > means descoping the Unicode release or not. However, this means that the > development focus needs to be towards new features AND Unicode, not > having the new feature branch, and the siberia branch with Unicode support.
I think the key to rebuilding momentum in PHP development is to not try and boil the ocean but to focus on "smaller" major releases. This would enable us to manage a more predictable release cycle, lower the risk for each release incl. better manage compatibility and increase motivation for contributors as they know they can have an impact and if they can't make one release they know the next isn't that far off (the latter also eliminates pressure to push pre-mature functionality into a release). In that spirit I would not necessarily couple Unicode support and the next "smaller" major version. First I would suggest to build a well-defined, reasonably scoped list of functionality for the next drop. I think we should make only a few features must-haves and the rest should-haves so that only high-priority pieces of functionality can potentially hold up a release. It also helps with quality as high risk functionality that feels unstable could be pushed out if needed. This encourages pushing out functionality to our users sooner rather than later (in the realm of reason). Then as far as Unicode support is concerned I think we need to work in parallel on various RFCs that can provide alternative ways of approaching the Unicode problem. Given the performance hit, memory overhead and complexity of the current implementation (which I also supported) I think we should try and look for a solution that is more pragmatic and is more explicit - giving the average PHP user the same experience, compatibility and performance characteristics of PHP 5.x while giving the more sophisticated users who need Unicode the tools to build global applications. Btw, I do think we should feel comfortable to call the next major version PHP 6 no matter what its content is (if it warrants a major version). I think the PHP dev community should put a stake in the ground and feel comfortable to redefine what PHP 6 is, whether it's with or without Unicode. This isn't a Perl 6 situation. This group shipped PHP 5.3 which was a very big step-up and a quite impressive major version. My 2 cents. Andi -- PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
