Thread

1. jakeasmith · 1789505909 · focus · HN ↗

   Author here, happy to answer any questions. I never imagined a polyfill for http_build_url would gain so much traction. After 12 years, deprecating it feels like the right move, especially given the new options from the community and PHP itself.

   1. dolmen · 1789640583 · focus · HN ↗

      From the article:

      > So I had a decision to make. I could dive back into PHP after almost a decade away, hand the package to one of the people who’d offered, or let it keep sitting there.

      We are in the AI era. As a maintainer of an open source project that I haven't touched for years, I would first start by asking an AI to produce a fix for the issue and check what it proposes. This definitely reduces the mental load and risk of breaking an old codebase that so many users depend on.

      Deprecating the project is playing the open source game in an other dimension: tell the word that depending on this project was a bad idea in the first place and that everyone should move on. But releasing a fix on a deprecated project is fine too.

      So both actions are on different dimensions, this isn't a choice between 2 options.

      1. mech422 · 1789642557 · focus · HN ↗

         The down vote was me - I really think calling deprecating a project after a decade+ telling the world 'depending on this project was a bad idea' is tone deaf.

         1. iso1631 · 1789643884 · focus · HN ↗

            I think it shows a complete misunderstanding on what free software is.

            1. dspillett · 1789644992 · focus · HN ↗

               Free software is Free (and free software is free, libre software is libre, …, where the free/Free/libre/OS/… distinctions are relevant). That does not guarantee continued maintenance for decades, and to expect such is the sort of entitlement that puts some people off sharing their work and playthings.

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