[horde] [dev] Horde 6 vs. Horde 5.3

[Vilius Sumskas/LNK]

> >>> since we have been asked recently when to expect Horde 6, and what 
> >>> could be done to speed up its release, I'd like to discuss an 
> >>> alternative option to release Horde 5.3 first.
> >>>
> >>> Many new features have gone into master since the Horde 5.2 
> >>> release, few of them sponsored by clients or contributed by the 
> >>> community. The expectation to see those features in a stable 
> >>> release within a foreseeable timeframe is more than justified.
> >>>
> >>> We could speed up the Horde 6 release by additional sponsoring, 
> >>> but it's not only a matter of money, but also a matter of 
> >>> developer resources. With Michael and me being the only remaining 
> >>> active core developers at the moment, we rather lack developer 
> >>> time. Especially for core development like infrastructure stuff, 
> >>> namespace refactoring etc. that are not easy for contributors to 
> >>> jump in.
> >>>
> >>> AFAIK we don't have any BC breaks in master yet, at least none 
> >>> that couldn't be solved with bumped dependencies. So doing a 5.3 
> >>> release should work. Michael, please correct me if I'm missing 
> >>> something.
> >>>
> >>> The flipside is, that:
> >>> - Horde 6 will delay even further
> >>> - we won't be able to do any refactoring, e.g. switching to 
namespaces
> >>> - we won't have a repository split that would make the libraries 
> >>> more attractive, e.g. by being available via composer/packagist 
> >>> and thus attracting external developers
> >>> - we won't be able to do long-anticipated BC breaks that currently 
> >>> hinder some development
> >>>
> >>> The discussion is open.
> >>
> >> I actually had a similar email in my drafts folder for a while now, 
> >> trying to compose the argument to do this or a "quick" Horde 6 
> >> release as-is - without the repo split.
> >>
> >> All in all, I'm mostly for it, with the following concerns:
> >>
> >> IMP in master is already labeled as 7 (not that this can't be 
> >> changed). There is a slight API change in IMP, but from what I 
> >> understand from Michael S.  the data that is now no longer 
> >> available isn't data ever meant for public consumption anyway 
> >> (though it IS still a BC break). To my knowledge the only Horde 
> >> code that had used this bit of information is ActiveSync, but it 
> >> was refactored to use the new data anyway.
> >>
> >> Then there is the fact that the basic and minimal views were 
> >> completely removed in IMP and this might be too big a change to 
> >> include in a point release.
> >>
> >> A point release will definitely hold up the work needed to get 
> >> Horde 6 rolling. The need to support the versions we need to, plus 
> >> the lack of time will hold up the repo split.
> >>
> >> My biggest gripe would be the delay in being able to start 
> >> ActiveSync refactoring. There are a lot of things that need to be 
> >> changed to make it more attractive to other developers. This might 
> >> be a blessing in disguise though, since it IS so much work, getting 
> >> an interim point release out now would prevent my refactoring from 
> >> holding up any major release.
> >>
> >> All that being said, I think the need to get Kronolith out, with 
> >> the oft-requested fixes for scheduling, probably trumps all other 
> >> concerns at this point, so I would say lets do the 5.3 release, 
> >> with the understanding that nothing new gets added until the repo 
> >> split happens.
> 
> Another thought. Will we be able to (do we have to) keep the PHP 
> version requirement the same? Personally, I've not been testing master 
> against PHP 5.3.x.

Why not? Personally I think that bumping a required version "just because" 
is a very bad idea. Lots of folks use hosting providers which still has 
older PHP versions running and see no reason to upgrade. For example 
RedHat/CentOS 7.0 (which is newest) still comes with PHP version 5.4 by 
default. And they still support it. They also still provide PHP 5.3 for OS 
version 6.0 which is also fully supported. And I must remind you that 
these are most popular Linux distributions which are deployed in like half 
hosting providers worldwide.

I would still be fine for Horde to require 5.4, but I really see no reason 
to do this. From the top of my head I don't remember any big changes which 
would really require PHP > 5.3. If you are worried that the code is not 
tested enough then so be it. Users can always submit a ticket to 
bugs.horde.org and in most cases it would be just a trivial fix anyway. It 
is far less time consuming then going though all hosting service desk 
loopholes and trying to update PHP version.

-- 
   Vilius