On Thu, Nov 15, 2018 at 5:07 PM Christoph M. Becker <cmbecke...@gmx.de> wrote:
> On 15.11.2018 at 15:27, Nikita Popov wrote: > > > Based on previous discussions, it appears that our current plan is to > > release PHP 8.0 after PHP 7.4. Normally we only branch off versions once > > they reach beta stage, which means the PHP-7.4 branch will only be > created > > around summer 2019. > > > > I would like to propose to branch off PHP-7.4 earlier this time and start > > working on PHP 8.0 in the master branch. This will allow people to start > > working on changes that are not suitable for PHP 7.4 (due to either > > significant internal ABI breakage, or userland breakage). > > > > Because each new branch introduces a lot of merge overhead for > > contributors, I would further propose that merges should only go up to > > PHP-7.4, while merges into master (PHP 8) will be performed occasionally, > > on an as-needed basis, by the people working on it. > > Have you considered having a separate PHP-8 branch, which can be rebased > onto master from time to time, and eventually be merged into master > (basically, treating the PHP-8 branch as a big feature branch)? > First, I think that continuously merging the level of changes we have in store for PHP 8 on an ongoing basis from a branch into master - while master is a moving target - would be a pretty big headache. That's why I think there's sense to PHP 8 being the master branch, where most development would go towards. However, I think that if PHP 8 is on master - it should become the responsibility of people who introduce patches for 7.4 - to also ensure that they work with 8 (master). If PHP 8 will be in a branch, that's much less likely to happen. Given the complexity and effort of 8, I think we could use some shared responsibility here, instead of putting the burden on the few working on the PHP 8 magic. Another option, by the way, would be ditching 7.4 altogether and focusing our efforts on 8.0 right away. It does mean people won't get typed properties in 2019, but it will mean they'll likely get PHP 8 sooner. Zeev
