Re: Bundling "modern" extensions

On 06/06/2011 10:56 AM, Johannes Schlüter wrote:

On Mon, 2011-06-06 at 10:18 -0500, Larry Garfield wrote:

The only way, currently, that projects can predict what a given host will have installed is "bundled in core PHP". If it's in the core PHP bundle, we can *usually* expect it to be there. If not, we can *usually* presume it won't be. That's not a hard and fast rule, but it's the best we've got right now.

While that rule is not true by far.

I never said it was a *good* rule. Just that it's the least bad we have right now. In the Drupal project (my home turf) we regularly struggle with debating if we can rely on a certain extension or not given that it's so hard to predict host behavior. Even among dedicated servers, many of my clients wrinkle their brows in confusion when I talk about installing a PECL module more complex than APC. We really do need some predictability in this market.

Unless we start a certification program ("PHP Certified Hoster" .. demanding some specific features etc.) there's little we can do. And I doubt we want to do that ;-)

If I had the time I'd consider it, frankly. We did manage to force the issue with PHP 5.2 with the GoPHP5 project. I once considered expanding its scope but never really had the time/energy to drive it.

One day[tm] I plan to make all this data public with a simple query interface. I'd also be interested in adding such a data collection to other software. If you're interested feel free to contact me of list. johannes

I am interested, actually. Stand by. :-) --Larry Garfield