[development] Go PHP 5, Go!

[Earnie Boyd]

Quoting Dries Buytaert <dries.buytaert at 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