Posted 1 year ago #
I've had a look at the code (which looks great btw) and all you seem to use 5.3 for is the namespace support. I'd understand the choice more if you were using alot of the new features but right now it feels like all you're doing is severely limiting your potential userbase for the plugin.
I just changed it for 5.2 compability and the changes that need to be made are just the namespaces, the __DIR__ constant and the one use of ?:.
Posted 1 year ago #
Hey, Smurkas
Thanks for your feedback.
I wrote the plugin in PHP 5.3 quite simply because that's what I use. Everything I write in PHP - with very few exceptions - is for version 5.3. I am fond of the new features, particularly namespaces, which give us a much more elegant way of organising code - naturally - so there's no good reason for me to use anything else.
I wrote Portico to help me out on a personal project - again, based on PHP 5.3 - and open-sourced it because I thought there may be others who would find it useful.
I agree that I may be limiting my audience, but working with an older version of PHP from day-one, when 5.3 has been gold for 18 months or so, doesn't make a lot of sense to me - and that's discounting the fact that I like using the features of PHP 5.3. I could well be wrong, but I think now is the time people start looking more closely at PHP 5.3, because hosts are starting to roll-out PHP 5.3 to users of shared hosting - which should rapidly increase its use.
That said, however, if I get a lot of requests from prospective users, developers working with 5.2, then maybe I'll consider down-grading the code. (That still sounds a bit bonkers to me, though: rather than upgrading to PHP 5.3, we down-grade code. Anyways.)
Perhaps you could publish a patch for PHP 5.2 users, since you've done all the work.
Thanks again
Posted 1 year ago #
Oh, and sorry for taking so long to get back to you - I've been a bit under the weather.
Posted 1 year ago #
Thanks for the answer!
I just want to say that in theory I agree with you and I also think we should be trying to move forward but realistically we're still a long way away. Support for the 5.2 line just ended though so you never know.
I personally think the bigger players like WordPress should push the button on this issue since if WordPress went 5.3 then a huge amount of people and hosts would have to switch but right now, the incentive isn't strong enough.
The numbers are about 6 months old but then 3.56% of the WordPress community and Ilias latest stats found here put 5.3 adoption at 4% so it seems like there at least isn't a bias against 5.3 in the WordPress community.
A potential user base of about 4% is very small but if the goal is just sharing your stuff then more power to you. I might be able to keep an updated 5.2 branch running, at least as long as you don't start using late static binding or __callStatic().
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