Re: [Vote] Add form feed as a whitespace character in trim, ltrim and rtrim

On Fri, Jan 30, 2026 at 1:39 AM Ben Ramsey <ramsey@php.net> wrote: > > I've voted "no" on this RFC since the RFC says the proposed PHP version > is PHP 8.5, which I interpret as meaning PHP 8.6, since 8.5 was released > in November. > > Even if PHP 8.6 is the proposed version, I still think the target > version should be PHP 9.0, since this is a BC break. I mentioned my > concern about this being a BC break in the discussion thread. > > The RFC is also clear this is a BC break. It says: > > > This is a **backward incompatible change**. Scripts that rely on > > trim() *preserving* leading or trailing Form Feed > > characters will > > be affected. > > I'm a little surprised by the number of folks who voted "yes" on this, > despite it being very clear this is a BC break and PHP "Next" is the > implied proposed version. > > Cheers, > Ben > > I would urge you to reconsider. Pushing all bug fixes with extremely minor BC implications into a single release that happens every 5-7 years will create problems with adoption. This fix should, imho, very clearly go into 8.6. Every minor ships with a BC list. E.g. https://www.php.net/manual/en/migration85.incompatible.php and there is nothing I can think of that is more minor than this change (maybe except adding deprecations). Kind regards, Volker -- Volker Dusch Head of Engineering Tideways GmbH Königswinterer Str. 116 53227 Bonn https://tideways.io/imprint Sitz der Gesellschaft: Bonn Geschäftsführer: Benjamin Außenhofer (geb. Eberlei) Registergericht: Amtsgericht Bonn, HRB 22127