Re: No PL/PHP ? Any reason?

On 23/06/10 02:16, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> On Tue, 2010-06-22 at 13:51 +0000, Greg Sabino Mullane wrote:
>
>>> Is there any technical obstacle to anyone creating PL/PHP? I am
>>> cruious as to why it doesn't alreay exist.
>>>
>> Obviously we need to improve our documentation. What led you to
>> believe it does not exist? As pointed out downthread, it does
>> exist (if not maintained).
>>
> It is maintained. We address items as they come in. Is it currently
> being developed for new features? No.
>
>> * Not in core
>>
> True. Check the archives there were long discussions as to why it won't
> work. Basically the build path of PHP isn't really compatible with the
> build path of PostgreSQL.
>
>
>> * PHP is not as stable, mature, secure, or well designed as Perl/Tcl/Python.
>>
> No it is just more popular, more widely used and has a larger community.
>
> (Oh: And remember, I am a python guy)
>
>

The biggest obstacle to more widespread use is packaging. There are no
installable packages for pl/php. It would make a world of difference
for it to have packages hosted as part of the yum repository. It would
be better for me if there were debian/ubuntu packages as well. It would
be easy for people to install which means it would be easy for people to
use. It's a lot of work to build from source, especially with the
strange dependency stuff. Part of the reason I haven't built from
source is because that isn't easy. For adoption in the enterprise, the
compile from source requirement kills using pl/php as an option. And I
have developers who'd like to use it. If you try to argue to build
something from source in my work, not a chance. But there is at least a
chance of installing a package from a different repository. It's seen
as much easier to back out and manage particularly if you want support
from your vendor.

At one point I did try to make a debian package for pl/php. I wasn't
experienced enough at either debian packaging or the pl/php build
procedure to make it all hang together. I still firmly believe there
would be more adoption if it was packaged.

Regards

Russell