[RFC|Merged] Require PHP 5.3

[igorw]

phpBB 3.0 still supports PHP 4.3. phpBB 3.1 is supposed to support PHP 5.2. The problem is that PHP 5.2 has been end-of-life'd since July 22nd 2010. By the time we release 3.1, the version of PHP that it is targeting will have been dead for 2 years. This is unacceptable.

At this point it just doesn't make sense to support PHP 5.2.

Just a few things that this would allow us to do:

• Use third party libraries such as Symfony2 components, Doctrine2 DBAL, Assetic to replace parts of our legacy code base
• Use Symfony2 EventDispatcher instead of copy-paste maintaining the code base (see this PR)
• All MODs can potentially benefit from the same
• We gradually add more use of PHP 5.3 features in minor releases
• Possibly get more collaboration and help to fix our dated code base
• Adopt standard PSR-0 autoloading in the future

Right now phpBB4 is not really happening. The way I see it, this move may allow us to do what drupal is doing right now. Slowly adopting third party components and making their code base maintainable.

Implications:

• The use of third party libs needs to be considered on many levels, so this will have to be a separate discussion
• A large part of our user base is on PHP 5.2 hosting; the earlier we decide and announce it, the less bitching

Implementation:

If this RFC gets accepted, here's what should happen.

• Announce on phpBB.com and release mailing list
• Adjust the phpBB 3.0 checker to warn for non PHP 5.3 hosts
• Require PHP 5.3 in the 3.1 installer and common.php

Any other changes should have separate RFCs. And should be avoided for 3.1 unless they help implement features blocking the 3.1 release.


Basically, that's it

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Tickets and Pull Requests

• Add installer check for 5.3.2 - Ticket - Pull Request
• Update PHP update notice in ACP main module for 5.3.2 - Ticket - PR to come when the announcement is posted.

[DamienMcKenna]

Important step: given several functions were deprecated in 5.3 but resurrected in 5.4 it should be very important to document how to disable the warning messages regarding deprecated functions.

[imkingdavid]

+1 I agree with moving to require PHP 5.3 for phpBB 3.1. Since we appear to still be a little ways off from the release, imo, it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and bump up the minimum PHP version, as people will have time to get their PHP updated.

Important step: given several functions were deprecated in 5.3 but resurrected in 5.4 it should be very important to document how to disable the warning messages regarding deprecated functions.

Well, imo if it's deprecated in 5.3, it shouldn't be used. When phpBB moves to support 5.4, as a minimum PHP version, we can re-implement such functions. MODs/Extensions that wish to use functions that were deprecated in 5.3 will need to specify PHP 5.4 as their minimum version.

[Oleg]

Which distributions ship which versions of php?

[Erik Frèrejean]

At this point it just doesn't make sense to support PHP 5.2.

What percentage of phpBB boards run PHP 5.3?
EOLled or not I'm aware of at least a couple of hosts that still run 5.2, unless the fast majority of the current boards run 5.3 bumping the requirement at this point (rather than 3.2) doesn't make sense. As a developer you might want to use the state of the art but in the end you must keep in mind your users.

[brunoais]

For now, require php5.[s]2[/s]3.

I believe Phpbb 4.0 should require, at least, php 5.4 (or even more, if applicable)

Edit: Whatever, here be lions! YEAH! igorw convinced me.

[igorw]

I was hoping I wouldn't have to argue about that point, but I guess I was optimistic.

The hosts don't upgrade because the apps run on low versions. The PHP projects don't upgrade because the hosts don't support new PHP versions. We cannot wait for them forever. There are enough 5.3 hosts to migrate to. The irony of the situation is that they could upgrade just fine, PHP is very backward-compatible. At some point we have to push them, this is simply unacceptable. And I will not accept it.

[Erik Frèrejean]

this is simply unacceptable. And I will not accept it.

I find it quite unacceptable that in the middle of the development of a version the requirements are bumped without any true benefits at this point. I'm not opposed to put into play such requirements, I am opposed of doing so during a development cycle and I truly don't believe that "its nice because from a dev point of view we can use fancy stuff" and "force hosts to upgrade" are valid arguments to do so during a development cycle bump a requirements to the point that users will find them in a situation that they won't be able to upgrade.
Requiring 5.3 or something for 3.2 I'm all on board.

[naderman]

this is simply unacceptable. And I will not accept it.

I find it quite unacceptable that in the middle of the development of a version the requirements are bumped without any true benefits at this point.

That is just wrong. There are very clear benefits which have been outlined in the first post. In particular the implentation of hooks would benefit from this significantly. It's obvious that we screwed up any release cycle we originally had, so reevaluating such decisions now makes a lot of sense. We should add a warning like the 5.2 one to the next 3.0 release, and quickly communicate publically, that we will no longer support hosts that run extremely outdated software. Deciding to move 3.1 into stand still because some plans failed is the worst thing we can do now.

[MichaelC]

The hosts don't upgrade because the apps run on low versions. The PHP projects don't upgrade because the hosts don't support new PHP versions. We cannot wait for them forever.

+1

Brunoais: To be honest, by the time phpBB 4 is released it will most likely be PHP 6?