Greetings PHP geeks,

Don't panic! This is not a proposal to add errors or remove this popular
extension. Not yet anyway, because it's too popular to do that now.

The documentation team is discussing the database security situation, and
educating users to move away from the commonly used ext/mysql extension is part
of this.

This proposal only deals with education, and requests permission to officially
convince people to stop using this old extension. This means:

- Add notes that refer to it as deprecated - Recommend and link alternatives - Include examples of alternatives

There are two alternative extensions: pdo_mysql and mysqli, with PDO being the
PHP way and main focus of future endeavors. Right? Please don't digress into the
PDO v2 fiasco here.

What this means to ext/mysql:

- Softly deprecate ext/mysql with education (docs) starting today - Not adding E_DEPRECATED errors in 5.4, but revisit for 5.5/6.0 - Add pdo_mysql examples within the ext/mysql docs that mimic the current examples, but occasionally introduce features like prepared statements - Focus energy on cleaning up the pdo_mysql and mysqli documentation - Create a general "The MySQL situation" document that explains the situation

The PHP community has been recommending alternatives for several years now, so
hopefully this won't be a new concept or shock to most users.

Regards, Philip