To avoid BC breaks we should try to avoid major syntax changes. We could
make new applications "hide" legacy though, something like "use new;" which
would remove deprecated and legacy functions from the global namespace.
On Jul 18, 2012 12:16 AM, "David Muir" <davidkm...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Took the words from my mouth. Removing legacy support is a terrible idea
> for PHP6. It makes it impossible to write forwards compatible code that
> currently runs in PHP5. Even having it optional is a bad idea IMO since it
> will fragment PHP hosting. Some will be able to run PHP6 only (no legacy),
> some will be able to run PHP5+ but will still be marketed as PHP6. Makes it
> that much harder to know if your code will run on a client's server.
>
> David
>
> On 18/07/12 00:04, Anthony Ferrara wrote:
>
>> I dislike this idea from the ground up.
>>
>> While I think having a legacy implementation is definitely worth while, it
>> needs to be in core. So PHP6 would introduce the new syntax, and include
>> the legacy functionality in as close to 100% backwards compatible way as
>> possible. From there, we'd only remove the legacy functionality from core
>> in 7 (which could be 4 or 5 years out).
>>
>> We don't want to be in the same situation with 6 that python was in with
>> 3,
>> and perl was in 5. We want to encourage adoption. Having a PECL extension
>> needed for adoption is not going to fly too well. But if we can add the
>> new
>> functionality and give people an easy migration path, adoption will be
>> easier. It still may take years, but it will at least be fairly smooth as
>> the majority of existing code will still work. Of course some BC breaks
>> may
>> be necessary (a-la what happened with PHP5), but they should be fairly
>> localized and pretty easy to handle... And they should be justified
>> (breaking BC for the sake of it, as with these legacy functions, would be
>> a
>> mistake)...
>>
>> My $0.02 at least.
>>
>> Anthony
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 9:41 AM, Andrew Faulds <ajf...@googlemail.com
>> >wrote:
>>
>>  This is an excellent idea. Full BC yet without legacy cruft. Old code
>>> runs
>>> on legacy support extensions, new code doesn't need it.
>>> On Jul 17, 2012 1:51 PM, "Leigh" <lei...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>  Basically, the current function library is moved to the legacy
>>>>> namespace.  The default setting is import the functions of the legacy
>>>>> namespace into the root namespace for BC.  But with that setting
>>>>> turned off all the existing functions go away to be replaced with a
>>>>> designed API, instead of a grown one, correcting the mistakes that
>>>>> have accumulated over the years.
>>>>>
>>>> Is there any reason why this cannot / should not be implemented as a
>>>> PHP 5 compatibility extension?
>>>>
>>>> I think those who never want to use it (PHP 6 purists) shouldn't have
>>>> to have their binaries bloated by legacy code. It would also mean that
>>>> the legacy implementation can be developed away from the new core, and
>>>> not have any (negative) influence on it.
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>
>

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