[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #49957: Adopt a policy to remove deprecated functions

[WordPress Trac]

#49957: Adopt a policy to remove deprecated functions
-------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  ayeshrajans  |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  General      |     Version:
 Severity:  normal       |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  needs-docs   |     Focuses:  docs, performance, coding-
  close                  |  standards
-------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
Changes (by johnbillion):

 * keywords:  2nd-opinion needs-docs => needs-docs close


Comment:

 I'd like to expand on some of the comments above, particularly jorbin's,
 to frame this discussion in a real world scenario.

 Imagine a "mom and pop" business that paid for a small website many years
 ago. The developer who built the site did a good job, and they built a
 custom plugin for the site. One of the functions they used in this custom
 plugin has since been deprecated but continues to perform its duty.

 The business owners have done as the developer said and kept their plugins
 and WordPress up to date with new releases over the years. They have
 better things to do than check their PHP error log for deprecated function
 warnings, and the custom plugin that they had developed has never been
 subsequently updated to use the newer APIs.

 One day they update to WordPress 5.X which has finally removed this
 deprecated function, and boom their site comes to a fatal conclusion
 despite having functioned well for many years prior.

 When we talk about fixing problems we must see these problems from the
 position of the end user, not just developers. What real world problem are
 we solving by removing deprecated functions? Can that problem ever be so
 important that it warrants potentially causing a website to go offline?

 Unlike developer-facing software I don't think deprecated functions in
 WordPress can or should be removed.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49957#comment:7>
WordPress Trac <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/>
WordPress publishing platform