How to Influence in the PHP Features of Present and Future Versions by Participating in the PHP Advisory board

In this article you can learn about:

1. Why You Would Want to Influence the Present and the Future of PHP Core Development

2. What You Can Do to Influence PHP Core Developers to Make PHP Better

3. How You Can Influence Present and Future Improvements in the PHP Language

4. How Can You Become a PHP Board Advisor

1. Why You Would Want to Influence the Present and the Future of PHP Core Development

All improvements made to the PHP language directly benefit all PHP developers working with it to develop projects for their companies and customers.

These improvements can be of many types, for instance, improvements in the speed of execution of PHP, better security protection, and new functions and classes that can do more tasks and make the lives of PHP developers more productive.

2. What You Can Do to Influence PHP Core Developers to Make PHP Better

3. How You Can Influence Present and Future Improvements in the PHP Language

The PHP improvement decision is an organized process. This means that, in practice, there are improvement proposals that need to be voted on by core developers.

Only the recommendations that get a minimum number of votes will lead to language improvements in the following PHP versions to be released.

So if you want to influence the improvements that will be done in the PHP language, you need to persuade at least one core developer to make a proposal to improve the language. Then influence as many core developers as possible to vote favorably on that proposal.

Contacting core developers is challenging because many of them are very busy with their personal lives and working on the PHP core features or other jobs that they may have to pay their bills.

Fortunately, now there is a new, more accessible way to influence PHP core developers which is to become a PHP Board Advisor.

4. How Can You Become a PHP Board Advisor

The PHP Foundation has allowed anybody to become a Board Advisor. This means that you can become a PHP Foundation Board Advisor member to advise the PHP core developers.

The PHP Foundation is an organization that was created in November 2021 recently to help organize the efforts to develop the PHP language and fund the work the core developers do, so they can dedicate more time to evolve the PHP language.

The PHP Foundation collects membership fees from members and sponsorship fees from companies that can spend more money to help the PHP developers work faster on the PHP language evolution.

I am a backing member and pay a monthly membership fee to help the PHP language development happen.

As the founder of the PHP Classes site, I always benefit from the work of many other PHP developers, from the core and others. So it is only fair to pay some money to retribute to the PHP community and help it evolve.

Therefore I suggest you also contribute as a form of showing gratitude and retribution to the PHP community.

To become a member of the PHP advisory board, go to the page of this article and read the section about A new benefit for major sponsors - Advisory Board membership.

If you cannot afford to pay the advisory board membership fees, you can still contribute a small fee via GitHub Sponsors or OpenCollective. Even an affordable fee of $5 a month will help PHP core developers improve the language.