RE: [PHP-DEV] PHP 5.3.8 Released!

From: Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:40:17 +0000
Subject: RE: [PHP-DEV] PHP 5.3.8 Released!
References: 1 2 3 4 5 6  Groups: php.internals 
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> No matter what it is or how it is defined by us, it breaks existing code and that
> should be avoided in bug fixes releases like 5.3.7/8.

Pierre,

This wholesale statement doesn't get us anywhere.  Every bug fix can result in breaking
existing code.  If due to a logic error, under some circumstances - file_exists() returned false for
a file that actually exists, are we barred from fixing that in a maintenance release?  Obviously
not.  What about bug # 54459?  What if some piece of code out there relied on this behavior?  What
about # 55082 - what if someone already relied on this and wrote a layer to alter the output
accordingly?

Since clearly the definition of never breaking existing code, no matter how far-fetched it may be,
means we can't do just about anything in bug fix releases - we need to set slightly more
realistic definitions.  The fix for is_a() falls squarely within the realm of stuff we should be
doing in bug fix releases, IMHO.  It is a bug fix, bug fixes by definition change behavior -
sometimes to the degree of breaking certain (broken) pieces of code. 

Zeev
 


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