Re: windows.php.net
On Sat, Aug 31, 2013 at 1:05 PM, Johannes Schlüter
<[email protected]>wrote:
> Hi,
>
> there has been some chatter about windows.php.net, which drives me to
> the question: Do we need that site? Why and for what?
>
> Few data items:
> * The "news" on w.p.n are not really maintained and provide
> outdated info.
> * Downloads are not using our 90 world-wide mirrors but a single
> site giving worse connection quality than needed
> * Snapshots on that site are outdated since more than a year (one
> can find newer ones when looking at a small note)
> * Team lists three people I don't know (might be my fault) who
> probably aren't part of the php.net community (what ever that
> is) and in general I don't understand the need for extra
> credits.
> * The site can only be updated by a small group of people
> different requests to broaden this (i.e. by updating from git
> like other php.net sites) have been rejected (or at least
> ignored, i.e. bug #64277)
>
> My idea would be to
> * shut down most of windows.php.net
> * Provide downloads via our mirrors. This might need work on a
> nice downloads page, probably some configuration to make sure we
> comply to US crypto export stuff (i.e. no U.S. servers for d/l)
> and probably a different approach to provision the distributions
> directory (git is not thaaat usable with these tons of "large"
> binary files)
> * either integrate snaps with snaps.php.net or create a limited
> w.p.n site doing only that and..
> * handle QA releases similar to snaps, if distributed from w.p.n
> provide direct links from qa.php.net
> * integrate team listing with credits, where needed
>
> johannes
>
>
>
>
The downloads section of windows.php.net is regularly updated. It
currently hosts 5.3.3, released 10 days ago. The snaps and news are a bit
outdated, but I'd say the solution to that is to encourage more
participation, not shut it down completely.
I'm not sure which team members you're referring to, but I know that three
of them work at Microsoft in Redmond and are very involved in helping to
maintain the Windows build of PHP. I know them all personally; Matt Ficken
was actually my replacement when my contract expired and I decided not to
renew. If those are the three you were referring to, I can tell you they
work very hard and are actively working with Pierre; at least, they were
the last I heard.
I think it makes sense for Windows to have its own subdomain site because
there are a number of differences between it and a standard Linux build. I
do agree that the news and snaps sections should be updated more regularly
(this has been a problem there for years), and maybe the best way to do
that would be to give more people access. That said, I think removing it
would be a bit drastic.
--Kris
Thread (25 messages)