Hi Juliette,

This request was triggered by this comment, in PR #1875:

CS/QA: make all classes final [1]

This commit adjusts all public facing classes which existed prior to PHPCompatibility 10.0 (as they need a changelog entry).

CS/QA: make all classes final [2]

This commit adjusts all public facing classes which are new in PHPCompatibility 10.0 (no changelog entry needed).

This is a bit problematic.

For years we have been told to use the develop branch, so it is a bit scary that breaking changes are being made without them being documented in the changelog.

All the work you do on this project is amazing and so very valuable to a lot of people, myself included. You truly do an amazing and often under-praised job with this vital piece of PHP infrastructure (not to mention your work on PHPCS itself; and the other related tools). No ifs or buts.

I know your reasons for not wanting to release 10.0.0 yet, but it has been over 6 years since the last versioned release and everyone is using the develop branch, so I think it's time to face the reality that what we actually have is a project where there is no versioning at all (semantic or otherwise) and which may therefore change in unexpected ways at any point.

I urge you to consider creating an official tagged 10.0.0 release. You can include whatever caveats you feel you may need in a 'known issues' section of the release notes so that it is clear what is still problematic and under what situations people may wish to stick with 9.x (or run both versions in parallel). It could even be a 10.0.0.rc1, if that makes you more comfortable.

This would not be 'releasing too soon' or introducing issues or backwards-compatibility concerns, as it is already the case that most people are using the develop branch, but instead of having an official way to do this safely, they are having to individually figure out how to get it working correctly and to handle upgrades by manually checking every commit or just crossing their fingers and hoping for the best.

I don't think the current situation is helping anyone, yourself included, and I would hope that finally putting a tag on a commit will reduce your stress and make you feel a bit more like you are moving forward rather than continuing to chase the constantly moving target of 'latest PHP release'.

I hope you take this post in the spirit it was intended, as a constructive attempt to move the project forward. I genuinely believe this would improve things for everyone, even with the concerns you have. I also fully acknowledge that this is your project and you should run it as you see fit. There will be no ill-will if you decide to continue along the current path.

Sincerely, and with the greatest of respect,

-- M