Thomas/Hans,
The biggest problem with branching is the one that you, Thomas, touched on: once a branch is created (using svn to copy the base directory to something like a "/svn/branches/PHP5/roundcubemail" location), that branch needs to be manually updated with changes that are committed to the trunk. This is relatively straightforward with svn's merge utility, but it's a manual process nonetheless. Also, once the branch diverges far enough from trunk, the new features and fixes will have to be redesigned to fit the branched version of the code.
I can certainly see the advantage of PHP5, but for the sanity of the branch maintainer I would suggest waiting to branch until something resembling a "1.0 stable" release exists.
Just my 2¢..
-Eric
On Wed, 14 Jun 2006 08:42:55 +0200, Thomas Bruederli wrote:
Hi Hans,
This is an interesting point and I can see the advantages to make use of
the PHP5 specific functions. If we decide to make a php5 branch this
will become the main branch one day php4 is really off. Currently I'm
not sure what consequences a separate branch will have for the ongoing
development. All new functions will have to be added to the trunk AND
the php5 branch, right?
In general I agree to have this branch if somebody (you?) will take care
of it.
Regards,
Thomas
Hans L wrote:
> Hi -
>
> I'm very impressed with roundcube and would like to suggest it as our
> replacement webbmail platform at work. Great project!
>
> I was wondering whether there is any interest in a PHP 5.1-only version
> of this software. I would be very willing to help port the software to
> PHP5, using exceptions, PDO, etc., since I will most probably be doing
> an in-depth code review anyway. Is there any interest in a PHP5-only
> branch? From a developer perspective, I think it makes for a
> significantly more debuggable & maintainable (and, in some ways, secure)
> codebase, but I understand there also are (a lot) of folks still running
> PHP4. (Not sure if many roundcube users are also running PHP4?)
>
> Regards -
> Hans
>>