Fanmail

Thursday, October 13th 2005, 11:55 CEST

Skien, Norway

I got a very nice email in my inbox from a PHP user concerning my "extreme hostility to the PHP community in general". This is ofcourse regarding my "fix" to combat PHP's stability (in other words, the "memory corruption" bug). The guy in question was acusing me that I "have acted just like Microsoft and eliminated a HUGE reason for PHP's success". I am not so sure where he pulls this comparison from actually. We're pretty good at fixing memory corruptions, addressing security problems and fixing bugs in my opinion.

Then my fan suggested that it is "time you [red. I] moved on, learn how to listen to a user base, or quit PHP before you kill it". I find those kinds of claims quite prepostruous as I probably spend more time on improving PHP then I spend on sleeping. Sure, some of the things that we do can be considered as "unpopular" as sometimes we need to fix a bug that breaks older scripts that relied on the buggy behavior. And yes, those scripts and applications needs to be fixed than which indeed takes time. We took that time to clean up our application and do the right thing, and had to delay our 3.7 release for a substantial amount of time, but in the end we ended up with a PHP version that doesn't segfault and a better application. This is called progress. If those "millions of users" had written proper tested code, they would not have had "broken websites" in the first place. Now they have the choice, just like we had, to either fix their scripts or use an older version of PHP.

For the record in case the person who mailed me this reads this post: I did not have anything to do with PHP 5.0.5. And under no circumstances will I stop doing any "favors" or "go away" because I fixed a couple of bugs. You should respect the work that volunteers put into PHP, and if are not happy with what we do with our spare time, donate some of your own.

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Comments

Sebs

Thursday, October 13th 2005, 10:08 UTC

Yeah, its easy to put such arguments on people ;)

Forget it ..... you guys arent as Dr. evil as some people need it to fullfill the stereotypes they have in mind ;)

To bad he isnt in mailing in the "give up" style that is saw in another mail that i saw on the php page ;).

I had answered that one with a simple f*** y** ;)

Jason Sweat

Thursday, October 13th 2005, 11:28 UTC

Derick,

Thank you for all of the time and effort you have devoted to PHP over the years. Your level of commitment to a volunteer effort simply amazes me. I hope the joy and challenge of working deep inside of PHP never leaves you.

Regards,

Olivier

Thursday, October 13th 2005, 12:10 UTC

Yes, of course, many people were first upset with this patch, but in the end, the most important and only thing to consider is that we've got a better engine and better applications.

Any person with an IQ > 50 should consider that, not to mention the fact that (all of) you put a huge amount of your time on providing us a great technology that saves us our time and money.

So, keep up the good work and never mind those assh*les!

boots

Thursday, October 13th 2005, 16:40 UTC

Thanks to you for all the work you do on the engine, both new and support wise. Your contribution is such that if you told me to f* off to my face, I wouldn't hesitate to say, "Thank You!"

Greetings.

Bertrand Mansion

Friday, October 14th 2005, 11:23 UTC

I think you are absolutely right, but the PHP 5.0.5 release is indeed a BC break for many people and I can understand why they are upset.

It would have been nicer IMO to first issue a warning instead of a fatal error. This way, developers could have logged the warnings and fix the problems as they arise.

Other than that, you are (along with Wez) my PHP man of the year 2005 !

Thanks for all the nice extensions you have written and all the work you have put into improving PHP.

derek martin

Friday, October 14th 2005, 14:52 UTC

You rock, man. Keep rockin! Your talks at php|works this year were great, and your enthusiasm for PHP is quite obvious. Chin up.

Jürgen Hauser

Friday, October 14th 2005, 21:20 UTC

Oh man, you should not waste your time even reading an email like that. You can't take this seriously, nor should it affect you at all.

The world is full of idiots...

James Benson

Wednesday, July 2nd 2008, 01:54 UTC

What a tool, I for one are lucking forward to PHP6 and already using PHP5, good work, keep it up!

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