> It's not a matter of won't upgrade, but that they can't upgrade. If Wordpress > decides to take their time supporting PHP 8, wordpress users won't have any > option but to wait on upgrading.
To be clear, WordPress core upgrading to support PHP won't be a big issue. And WordPress core code has actually improved significantly in recent years. Upgrading the ~68,000 open source plugins available on wordpress.org <http://wordpress.org/>, thousands of commercial plugins, and and an untold number of custom-developed bespoke plugins and custom themes is where the concern lies. -Mike > On Sep 12, 2019, at 11:14 AM, Chase Peeler <chasepee...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 2:10 PM Lynn <kja...@gmail.com > <mailto:kja...@gmail.com>> wrote: > On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 7:59 PM Mike Schinkel <m...@newclarity.net > <mailto:m...@newclarity.net>> wrote: > > > > > > > Just a few weeks ago I was refactoring some particularly horrible code > > developed by previously employed developers — a code based that has a 1400 > > line function and many other functions 100s of lines long, and I added some > > initialization for variable and array elements prior to their use. > > > > Unfortunately my changes broke the code because the original developer > > using isset($var) as branching criteria. After finding this bug, I > > realized that this code base uses that technique frequently. I am know > > from lots of experience that this is a common technical among WordPress > > plugins. > > > > > The bug is not that you initialized the variable, it's that you initialized > it with a different value: https://3v4l.org/8mB8B <https://3v4l.org/8mB8B> > ``` > var_dump(isset($a)); > $a = null; > var_dump(isset($a)); > > // gives > bool(false) > bool(false) > ``` > > Whenever one of these errors will occur, you can initialize either the > array key or variable with null and it will work again without changing > behavior. If anything, Wordpress shouldn't be an argument to not improve > PHP, though I think it's important to consider the impact of a change, > including for the Wordpress community. However, I think most people agree > that the quality of Wordpress code and Plugins is highly debatable. I don't > like the idea of not being able to progress because Wordpress users won't > upgrade PHP. > > It's not a matter of won't upgrade, but that they can't upgrade. If Wordpress > decides to take their time supporting PHP 8, wordpress users won't have any > option but to wait on upgrading. > > Regards, > Lynn van der Berg > > > -- > Chase Peeler > chasepee...@gmail.com <mailto:chasepee...@gmail.com>
