Re: [VOTE] Deprecations for PHP 8.1

Hi Mike,

Instead I replied because your email strongly implied (stated?) that "deprecation required removal"

I stand by that interpretation, which while not universal is very widely used, and I think is more useful than a general hint at "bad practice". You spend most of your e-mail seeming to argue against it, and then seem to say that actually you do agree with it after all, and all you're saying is that sometimes the deprecation period should be longer:

I am not advocating that. I am advocating we should consider making it: "features that are strongly discouraged will*probably* be removed in the next major version, but in some cases may be retained for one or more major versions."

I'm totally OK with that. I do think that there should be a clear *plan* for removing each deprecated feature, though. That plan might be "deprecate in 8.1, and examine prior to 9.0 whether usage has dropped / the alternatives are mature / etc". It might flat out be "deprecate in 8.1, but don't remove until 10.0". Otherwise, the message becomes "this feature is kind of bad, and at some point we might decide to drop it without further notice, but actually we might not, so no hurry to remove it", which I just think isn't that helpful. Regards, -- Rowan Tommins [IMSoP]