Re: PHP roadmap

On Sat, 9 Sep 2000 john@webmeta.com wrote: | | On Sat, 9 Sep 2000, Stig Venaas wrote: | | > I too think it might be good to separate some extensions from the core | > and use PEAR. It's starting to get too big, they can be released at | > different intervals and bugs can be reported separately. Well, I suppose | > there was a reason PEAR was made (: | | I can see how the configure script might be really confusing to newer | users. I, however, usually end up completely baffled every time I visit | the Perl CPAN. :) | | But you're right, the ability to release extensions either as a group or | individually seperately from the core would be very nice for folks who | want to start playing with a new extension without waiting for the next | core release or compiling the CVS version. | | This would complicate things somewhat, however, as a new release of an | extension may have internal dependencies on the core that it was built | under. Perl modules (written in Perl) and PEAR modules written in PHP | are less likely to have such internal dependencies. Right. The logical conclusion then is wait until the core stabilizes. PHP has never been in the position before that it would be very bad (only bad) to change any core APIs. There's another issue though: some of the most common user feedback we've had about PHP is that it's easy to install (at least it's only _one_ configure command :-). Once extensions are divorced from the main distribution, this will probably change, so we should start with the least frequently used extensions and try discovering problems early. It's also absolutely essential that the extensions get good regression tests when they are separated, or it will be too easy to miss changes in the core. - Stig