PHP-Dev/CVS list activity summary

Hello All, I have had a few people express concerns about managing to keep up-to-date with the QA effort. So, in an effort to help them out (and keep more on top of it myself :) I am going to start writing a regular summary of the QA related activity on the Dev and CVS mailing lists. Doing this will tie in nicely with one of my current projects, working on the Zend PHP Weekly Summary. Avi Lewin (editor of the Zend PHP Weekly Summary) is going to be away from his desk for the next few weeks and I am covering for him during his absence. I should be able to get a feel for how much work this will be during the three weeks that I work on the summaries. I took a dry run at the summary for last week (Ok, to be honest, I did not know if Avi was doing the summary this week, so I started just in case he was not. :o) Anyways, here is a rough weekly summary, posted for the benefit of the QA team. :) The summaries that I develop for the QA team in the future will be more technical/less chatty and will include more CVS info. They should help us get a feel for where we can focus our testing efforts by keeping everyone up-to-date with what sections of code have changed, what issues have been spotted, etc. --zak ---------- FIX: strtotime() timezone bug fixed Derick Rethans fixed a bug in strtotime() where timezones +100 and -100 were not being properly handled. REQ: Request for csv_explode() function Justin Plock has requested a function that is a variant on explode(). The new function would work like explode(), but would correctly handle more complex CSV-like data formats. FIX: Improved serializing for undefined object variables Thies added code to handle serializing variables within objects that have been declared, but not defined. This change should correct bug #14293. TLK: Error reporting and the filesystem functions There is an ongoing discussion on how various filesystem functions (like is_dir(), is_file(), etc.) display errors.  The crux of the argument is that these functions display an error when the test the perform fails. Some developers feel that this is wrong because they are usually used to test for possible error cases and should not generate errors of their own. Hopefully, this thread will resolve next week. TLK: PHP 4.1.0 release leaked Several sources incorrectly reported that PHP 4.1.0 had been released. After this occurred, a discussion on how to best handle the leak sprung up. A proposal was made to release 4.1.0 as 4.1.1. It was felt that doing so would help the developers easily recognize bugs from users who had prematurely downloaded 4.1.0. In the end, it was decided that changing the release version would only add to the confusion. BUG: PUT method file uploads not implemented in PHP $ I am working to confirm this. FIX: Timezone problems with mail() function corrected Derick Rethans has corrected a bug with how mail() handles timezones. Bugs fixed include #8909 and #12680. REQ: Pick-and-choose default parameters for functions A user has requested functionality that would allow additional control over how default value of function parameters is used. In the current version of the Zend Engine, there is no way to allow the use of a default value for a function parameter when any parameter to the right of it is set. Given that this functionality has been requested before, the user may face an uphill battle. Visit http://bugs.php.net/?id=14306 to see what happens. BUG: Bug in LDAP derails PHP 4.1.0 release Stig Venaas discovered a bug in ldap_first_attribute() code that slipped in between 4.0.6 and 4.1.0. Zeev attributes the bug to the malign intervention of a higher force. TLK: New PHP 4.1.0 release candidates Designating a release candidate as 'Final' may be folly. :) PHP 4.1.0RC3 (the final RC in question) was found to have a significant bug. PHP 4.1.0RC4 was released for testing and was also found to be wanting. PHP 4.1.0RC5 should be released shortly for testing. Barring any further difficulties, next weeks summary should contain the joyful news of PHP 4.1.0's official release. :) FIX: Multiple bug fixes for DOM-XML Markus Fischer has fixed a good number of long-standing DOM-XML bugs. Some of the more significant fixes include:  - Making the Win32 version of the extension thread safe  - Fixing segfault and leak conditions in five functions  - Making set_content() sets the node->content property  - Additional error checking and reporting for php_xpath_get_object(), php_xpath_get_context() and php_dom_get_o