That isn't measurable, so it is a suggestion, not a standard. It also creates serious problems
in userland if APIs change. API changes lead hosts to literally take years to update to new versions
of PHP, for fear of breaking the sites that host with them. What about:
Userland API compatibility of documented interfaces and behaviors must be kept. API internals should
be backwards compatible wherever possible.
This relaxes the userland restriction just slightly to allow for changes that break undocumented
behaviors, but leaves it basically stable and measurable. This also leaves the door open for
internal changes if they're really needed, but basically suggests against it.
John Crenshaw
Priacta, Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: Dmitry Stogov [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2011 7:08 AM
To: Pierre Joye
Cc: PHP internals
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Final version, RFC release process
Hi,
In my opinion a restriction "API compatibility must be kept (internals
and userland)" for x.y.z to x.y+1.z is too strict. It just can block
some new features forever.
I would suggest to change "API compatibility must be kept" to "API
backward compatibility must be kept as much as possible".
Thanks. Dmitry.