[Fedora-packaging] PHP packaging policy notes

[Tim Jackson]

Jason L Tibbitts III wrote:

>>>>>> "TJ" == Tim Jackson <lists at timj.co.uk> writes:
> 
> TJ> Not sure if I'm on my own here, but this seems like a lot of
> TJ> namespace clutter for little benefit.  What's the problem with
> TJ> "yum install php-pear-FOO"?
> 
> I believe spot's reasoning was that we don't want
> users to have to know whether what they want is in a PEAR or PECL
> module.  I'm not sure it's worth the inevitable namespace collision.

I can see the reasoning (Tom?), but:

a) PEAR and PECL are fundamentally two quite different things. If 
someone is specifically installing a PEAR or PECL package (as opposed to 
getting one pulled in as a dep of something else, in which case the 
naming is mostly irrelevant) then presumably they already know what it 
is and how to use it. If they don't know whether it's a PEAR or a PECL 
module, they're not likely to have much success using it, not least 
because PECL extends the language core with (normally procedural) 
functions that don't need external requires() whereas PEAR modules are 
PHP classes that normally need explicit requires() when they are used.

b) Even ignoring (a), personally I think the namespace clutter and 
possible collisions mean that it's not really worth it.

Tim