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PHP RFC: Remove utf8_decode() and utf8_encode()
- Version: 0.9
- Date: 2016-08-15
- Author: Yasuo Ohgaki yohgaki@ohgaki.net
- Status: Under Discussion
- First Published at: http://wiki.php.net/rfc/remove_utf_8_decode_encode
Introduction
Purpose of this RFC is described in bug #60429
The purpose of the functions utf8_encode and utf8_decode are time and again misunderstood and have probably caused more encoding related problems than they have solved. The biggest reason for this is their naming. Their purpose is to *convert* the encoding of a string from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8, yet they are named in a way that suggests some other magical function that is necessary to work with UTF-8 text. Users looking for “UTF-8 support” in their app quickly find these functions due to their naming and use them without understanding what they do, often only testing with ASCII text which appears to work fine of first sight.
Why is ISO-8859-1 presumed to be the default encoding when converting to UTF-8, hence why do these functions occupy such a prominent spot in the namespace? There's simply no good reason for it.
The same functionality is available through iconv and mb_convert_encoding. Therefore I suggest to slowly deprecate utf8_encode and utf8_decode to clear up a recurring confusion and consolidate features into the existing, much more versatile iconv and mb_ functions.
Proposal
- Document utf8_decode() and utf8_encode() deprecation now.
- Remove utf8_decode() and utf8_encode() from PHP 7.2.
Backward Incompatible Changes
Programs use utf8_decode() and utf8_encode() for ISO-8859-1 to/from UTF-8 conversion must use other encoding conversion function available. e.g. mb_convert_encoding()
Proposed PHP Version(s)
- 7.1 - Remove utf8_decode() and utf8_encode()
RFC Impact
To SAPIs
None
To Existing Extensions
XNL module
To Opcache
None
New Constants
None
php.ini Defaults
No change.
Open Issues
None
Unaffected PHP Functionality
Other XML module features except utf8_decode() and utf8_encode() are unaffected.
Future Scope
None
Proposed Voting Choices
State whether this project requires a 2/3
Vote starts: 2016/08/22
Vote ends: 2016/08/29 23:59:59 UTC
Patches and Tests
TDB. Just functions removal. No patch.
Implementation
- the version(s) it was merged to
- a link to the git commit(s)
- a link to the PHP manual entry for the feature
References
Rejected Features
Keep this updated with features that were discussed on the mail lists.