Declare intent to abandon this library

[Ocramius]

This issue is a placeholder for the next minor release: I've yet to write a detailed reasoning for why I want to abandon this project.

The TLDR is:

• it was an experiment / feasibility study for doctrine/orm internals
  • I no longer actively work on doctrine/orm
• I firmly believe that when you scratch the limits of PHP to the point at which you need this library, you are better off using a compiled programming language instead

Therefore there won't be PHP 8.4 support for this library, which will instead be abandoned.

TODO: adjust README.md with architectural reasoning behind this library, and mark it security-only for a while.

Abandon later, once PHP 8.3 is EOL.

[pounard]

This is sad, it worked as intended in a few projects I maintained in production for a few years. I had much fun doing the few contribution I made to it and using it.

Thanks for all the work.

I have a question thought, ORM don't and won't use it in this state, but has this experimentation served in any way in ORM improvements ?

[Ocramius]

@pounard yes, much has improved in the hydrator performance, since then.

Findings from here have also helped improving ocramius/proxy-manager.

Overall, the package will stay in usable state for a long while, BTW: it just isn't worth researching further.

My endorsement here would be to write a small extension that does the hydration at lower level, where the heavy lifting is done by a pre-existing compiler instead.

[carnage]

@pounard I have been working on an alternative to this library for a while. Just lobbed a PoC onto github if you're interested: https://github.com/atto-php/hydrator/tree/main

[WyriHaximus]

@pounard Been using https://github.com/EventSaucePHP/ObjectHydrator?tab=readme-ov-file#maximizing-performance with great success over the past year.

[pounard]

Thank you, @carnage, @WyriHaximus, I probably won't use those tools, but I add the first one to my watch list. It may serve me later, and maybe I'll contribute, who knows ?!

Long live to optimistic community members ! I'll drink a beer or two for generated-hydrator, and I'll buy you one @Ocramius whenever you come to visit Nantes, FR. Just ping me, I owe you some.