dropping 5.6.x support (was: [mp2] recent 5.6.x breakage)

[Geoffrey Young <ge...@modperlcookbook.org>]

> Nope, I haven't run smoke against 5.6.x for quite some time. I think
> since 1.99_14 was released.

I think it is time we re-evaluated support for 5.6.x.

I would suggest we drop support for the 5.6 branch entirely.  here is why:

  - we spend lots of time on threads and require 5.8.x thread foo.  saying
"5.6.x for prefork and 5.8.x for threads" is really just setting us up for
lots of problem reports for when people fiddle with the mpm post
compilation.  everyone knows it is possible to compile with both mpms and
choose after the fact, right?

  - our resources are limited.  with just the handful of us being active it
is practically impossible to keep up with all the generations of httpd and
perl.  supporting just the 5.8.x tree alone is about to give us _5_
different versions of perl to accommodate internally with the impending
release of 5.8.5.

  - we are still not at 2.0 yet, so now is the time to drop support for
older versions, not after we move to 2.0 and find it is just a pain to
support 5.6.x.

personally, I am just fine with leaving 5.6.x behind.  who among us even
runs 5.6?  by this I mean that, as developers, it is impractical to say we
support a perl version that none of us even tests against on a semi-regular
basis, especially one that is as old (both in age and in version) as 5.6.1
is.  we are but a few, and we do our best to make everyone happy, but the
reality is that we can't handle everything, and I would rather see resources
go toward cool things like separating APR and integrating new httpd 2.2
features when it arrives over supporting older httpd or perl versions.

--Geoff

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Re: dropping 5.6.x support

[Stas Bekman <st...@stason.org>]

Geoffrey Young wrote:
>>Nope, I haven't run smoke against 5.6.x for quite some time. I think
>>since 1.99_14 was released.
> 
> 
> I think it is time we re-evaluated support for 5.6.x.
> 
> I would suggest we drop support for the 5.6 branch entirely.  here is why:
> 
>   - we spend lots of time on threads and require 5.8.x thread foo.  saying
> "5.6.x for prefork and 5.8.x for threads" is really just setting us up for
> lots of problem reports for when people fiddle with the mpm post
> compilation.  everyone knows it is possible to compile with both mpms and
> choose after the fact, right?

I'm not sure what you mean here.

>   - our resources are limited.  with just the handful of us being active it
> is practically impossible to keep up with all the generations of httpd and
> perl.  supporting just the 5.8.x tree alone is about to give us _5_
> different versions of perl to accommodate internally with the impending
> release of 5.8.5.

we don't spend any time supporting 5.6.x at the moment. All the initial issues 
were figured out long time ago. This recent breakage is our problem, we just 
need to figure out what we did. The MakeMaker craft makes it hard to figure out.

>   - we are still not at 2.0 yet, so now is the time to drop support for
> older versions, not after we move to 2.0 and find it is just a pain to
> support 5.6.x.
> 
> personally, I am just fine with leaving 5.6.x behind.  who among us even
> runs 5.6?  by this I mean that, as developers, it is impractical to say we
> support a perl version that none of us even tests against on a semi-regular
> basis, especially one that is as old (both in age and in version) as 5.6.1
> is.  we are but a few, and we do our best to make everyone happy, but the
> reality is that we can't handle everything, and I would rather see resources
> go toward cool things like separating APR and integrating new httpd 2.2
> features when it arrives over supporting older httpd or perl versions.

I really can't see why have you decided to suggest that? We haven't had 5.6.x 
issues in a long long time, and we will nail that one and move on.

We just need to run builds on all configurations more often, so it's easier to 
figure out what change broke things. And than the overhead of fixing it is small.

If we get to a situation where we start constantly spend time writing 
workarounds for 5.6.x, then yes, we could have done that.

The main objection to dropping 5.6.x support, is that by dropping it you risk 
losing users, especially new ones, who may have given mp2 a try, but the 
initial cost of upgrading to 5.8.x might be a turn-off.


-- 
__________________________________________________________________
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