Quoting Dries Buytaert <dries.buytaert@gmail.com>:
On 21 Jun 2007, at 08:38, Boris Mann wrote:
Mark my words: a PHP5-only Drupal 7 will leave many, many Drupal users behind.
It's OK...every full Drupal update leaves many Drupal users behind for a significant portion of time. Ponder that :P
Except that this time, we risk leaving 70% of the install base behind. The amount of intelligent/constructive feedback to this thread has been surprisingly low. Let's stick to facts and real arguments, please. I'd like to see a _real_ discussion here.
How do we quantify the 70%? Does all of that 70% have no choice to move to PHP5 if they want? How can we help those who want to move to Drupal 7 but can't because their stuck on PHP4 find a path? What preparation will early announcement have on the 70% to help reduce that number? Those who don't want to upgrade will never upgrade; should we reduce that number from the 70%? We could add a warning to Drupal 6 that Drupal 7 is going to require PHP5 to prepare the masses who upgrade to it. Unless we approach this as all or nothing IMO we will forever remain at PHP4. It is easy for modules to begin to require PHP5 with a simple try/catch coding phrase. Since try/catch cannot be emulated it is a must to move to PHP5 to use the code. So in order to help reduce the migration to PHP5 I do agree that some modules should begin requiring it for Drupal 6. I find PHP5 faster than PHP4 so therefore remaining at PHP4 makes little sense since we are looking for speed improvements. The issue is, for those who have the need to remain at PHP4 how can we continue to support them? We let them remain with Drupal 4, 5 and 6 until such time they are ready to move forward. Earnie