[wp-hackers] Re: SOAP Interface and moving to php 5

Peter Gordon Peter.Gordon at topproducer.com
Fri May 11 17:59:37 GMT 2007


I think pushing WP to php5 and signaling an end to support for php4 is a
great idea. There are features and fixes in 5 that will never appear in
php4.x.

With the influence WordPress has in the PHP community, a move to support
PHP5 would send a strong message to the shared hosting community that
they have to get with the times if they want to be paid to host sites
that use WordPress. 

Having listened to some of the core PHP developers through the Vancouver
conference, there was far more talk about getting on with php6 than with
further patches to php4. And yes php5 is now over 3 years old. PHP4 is
seen more as a dead branch, patched as a courtesy. Who else finds it
ridiculous that anybody is still using php4 when php5 has been around
now for 3 years? The old excuses for not moving over just don't add up
anymore. 

As was pointed out in other comments, the issue is the shared hosting
providers. I have learned from people in the business tat there has been
a great deal of farming out of shared services to cluster farms, where
the company you deal with doesn't even host their own shared hosting.

These data services jam on as many accounts as possible on to a server,
and are set to run LAMP mirrors using php4.x and mysql3.x across
hundreds of machines. These services are Cash cows for the owners. You
can't shell in, you can't run cron, you can't have one change to
php.ini, and you cant get the benefit of a software update. And of
course when bandwidth starts to suck or performance goes down, tech
support says you need a dedicated server and passes you over to sales.
They aren't concerned that they are running embarrassingly old releases
of software. What a racket. Lucky I'm smarter than that. Other people
aren't.

While it is possible to run php4 and php5 together, few hosting services
offer it, and few know how to do it. The word needs to get out that this
is technically possible and doable in production environments. The
howtos are googleable. Unfortunately, there is never an open attitude
towards any changes to systems in these big hosting environments. It's
galling in the Information Technology industry to be stuck dealing with
business services that are incredibly resistant to change or new ideas.
They aren't interested or willing to investigate anything new related to
the services they offer. This experience is far too common. 

If the cms middleware communities started to push their weight around by
putting an end to support for php4 on the horizon, that may encourage
cPanel and Plesk along with others to follow suit. The more development
communities that start to want stop supporting php4, the easier it will
be for businesses to make the long overdue adaptation to php5x and mysql
5x. A push for change will also shake up shared hosting services - and
this is direly needed. 


Cheers,
PG



-----Original Message-----
From: wp-hackers-bounces at lists.automattic.com
[mailto:wp-hackers-bounces at lists.automattic.com] On Behalf Of Matt
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 9:15 AM
To: wp-hackers at lists.automattic.com
Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] Re: SOAP Interface

Problem with MySQL 5 is that it's not installed on most Shared Servers.
It's
almost always MySQL 4.

I think we'd be able to safely drop PHP 4 support soon. Since it's
possibly
to run PHP 4 and 5 on the same server, there's no reason for not having
PHP
5. I doubt we'll see this happen anytime soon in WP, though...
Unfortunately.


On 5/11/07, Knut-Olav Hoven <hovenko at linpro.no> wrote:
>
> On Friday 11 May 2007 17:31:03 Shannon Whitley wrote:
> [...]
> > To provide the best support for all users, WordPress has to evolve.
It
> > can't evolve if it plans to support old PHP and MySQL versions
forever.
> > That support may be seen as an advantage now, but I believe it will
> > actually result in a disservice to the users.  In some areas, WP
won't
> be
> > able to improve due to the limitations of the old support software.
I
> > think it's important to create a support-software roadmap for WP.
By
> all
> > means, run WP2.1 forever on PHP 4, but when you want to upgrade to
WP X,
> > you'll need PHP Y and MySQL Z.
>
> I agree with this. I don't think it is a good idea to allways be
backwards
> compatible with "the stone age" (to be on the edge). Of course we
should
> not
> be on the bleeding edge either, but at least follow the evolution.
>
> I currently work on a highly customized WordPress (mostly customized
> through
> plugins and theme) and I often get requests to integrate with other
> software
> and web services.
>
> It is great that WordPress has such a large amount of users and I
don't
> think
> that setting the requirements to PHP5 and MySQL5 will change that.
Those
> who
> refuse to upgrade can continue running the latest 2.x release, while
the
> rest
> of us run 3.x (or something).
>
>
> --
> Knut-Olav Hoven
> Systemutvikler               mob: +47 986 71 700
> Linpro AS                    http://www.linpro.no/
> _______________________________________________
> wp-hackers mailing list
> wp-hackers at lists.automattic.com
> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
>



-- 
Matt (speedboxer at gmail.com)
http://mattsblog.ca/ | http://livemp.net/
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