Re: PHP 4.3 and PHP 5

> Hi all, > > Following on from the recent debug_backtrace discussion, and the > discussion about just what we are releasing next and so on, I'd just > thought I would make a couple of comments about PHP 4.3 and about what > I think (IMHO) should be the goals of PHP 5. > > I'm currently reviewing the streams code, to make sure that the API is > good enough for a release: there are a couple of things that I want to > tidy up ready for PHP 4.3: > > o Add a "set-blocking-flag" method to the generic stream operations, > So that non-blocking IO can be enabled on any stream that it makes > sense to do so. (IIRC, there is a bug in the DB, or this deficiency > was mentioned on the list). > > o Tidy up persistent streams support. (I need some help from someone > that > really knows what they are doing here). This is important, because > I'm not sure that persistent sockets (pfsockopen) are actually working > in HEAD ATM. > > o Implement a filter API, so that filters can be stacked over a stream. > I've mentioned this before; it will be useful to stack things like > base64, charset conversion, zlib/bzip compression and crypto over a > stream - potentially multiple filters. I don't think that this will > take too long to implement (perhaps by the weekend). > > o Implement stat() and readdir() for ftp. I think http will be "too > hard" > to achieve in time for 4.3. > > PHP 5 > ----- > > Zeev raised the issue of figuring out what we want to be in PHP 5. > Well, I can't think of (m)any fancy new features for PHP 5 that we > haven't already got in HEAD, but to get the ball rolling, this is my > take on how PHP 5 could/should look: > > Current HEAD, stabilized. This includes things like the new build > system, streams, enhancements to post/file uploading, domxml and so on. > ZE2, feature complete. (New OO, better rpc/com/java, try/catch, > delegation, etc. etc.) > > To me, that sounds really pretty good. Yes, it's just HEAD with ZE2, > but I think it's almost what will be PHP 5. A couple of additions that > would make it more attractive: > > o PEAR/PECL CA fully established. I know that we are aiming to get > this off the ground for PHP 4.3, but I'm sure we can improve it for PHP > 5. > > o Bundle Brads php-soap extension, and "market" PHP 5 as being "Web > Service Enabled". > o Finish off Harald's RPC extension, which should provide "Seemless" web services. Move Brad's extension into PEAR/PECL, for those people who need to use soap in a manly, yet sexy way. o We really need some people to look at PHP's XML support. Yeah, currently, it kinda-sorta works, however, we can really do it better. I suggest using the DOMXML extension as a base (so much work has been done already). Test strongly, Add full LibXML support, standardize the API to DOM's api, and bundle libxml & libxslt with PHP version 5 (removing expat bundling). o See if we can get cURL bundled for PHPv5. o In that vein, get a proper standardized bundling scheme setup, that makes it easy to bundle/unbundle software with PHP. -Sterling > Beyond that, I can't seem to think of anything else: I know that I > would be very happy to start using all these new features in production > ASAP, and I think that it will take 4.3 and 4.3.1 to stabilize these > features and help us find/fix any problems before following up with PHP > 5 in around 6 months time (perhaps slightly less?). > > With that in mind, once we have released PHP 4.3, it would make sense > if we switched the CVS version to build with ZE2 by default, so that we > can help "test-in" the new engine more thoroughly, and perhaps get it > released that much sooner? > > --Wez.