[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #55121: classic widgets with no settings won't show up in 5.9

[WordPress Trac]

#55121: classic widgets with no settings won't show up in 5.9
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 Reporter:  joncampbell     |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect (bug)    |      Status:  closed
 Priority:  normal          |   Milestone:
Component:  Widgets         |     Version:  5.9
 Severity:  normal          |  Resolution:  invalid
 Keywords:  has-patch php8  |     Focuses:
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Comment (by andraganescu):

 Hey folks adding an extra opinion. The way I read this problem is:

 - plugins do something which is wrong, overloading a method and returning
 something unexpected to core
 - nevertheless that ''used to work'', which makes things more complicated
 - because we are fixing a problem by creating another one
 - and we can avoid this with some harmless extra code

 I agree with @jrf in that "is not WordPress' job to be forgiving for every
 single type of developer error", but @peterwilsoncc also has a point that
 "WordPress's often stated goal is to maintain backward compatibility".

 So, in my head, we should **try** fixing ''for both situations'': make PHP
 8 not break and bad plugins continue to function, because it is possible,
 unless this is impossible. The decision to not support back compat
 problems is valid only if:

 - the back compat code is likely to create future problems
 - or if it is impossible today to both support back compat and the
 present.

 The present or the future are more important than the past only if the
 past prevents us from accessing the present or the future. Otherwise we
 own our past, right? :)

 So, as far as I undestand, the change appearing in 5.9 is ''also'' a
 backward compatibility problem because it worked "doing it the wrong way"
 before 5.9. To be clear, I am not a fan of this kind of patching, it's
 obvious that we're trying to provide for a principial developer error,
 even the OP decided this ticket can be closed. But patching to include
 both PHP 8 safety ''and'' back compat is owning to the fact that WP was
 not as strict as it could have been years ago.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/55121#comment:16>
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