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FAQ: add two dev related questions

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8.1 Why does curl use C89?
  8.2 Will curl be rewritten?

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Closes #7715
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@ -114,6 +114,10 @@ FAQ
7.3 Can I perform multiple requests using the same handle? 7.3 Can I perform multiple requests using the same handle?
7.4 Does PHP/CURL have dependencies? 7.4 Does PHP/CURL have dependencies?
8. Development
8.1 Why does curl use C89?
8.2 Will curl be rewritten?
============================================================================== ==============================================================================
1. Philosophy 1. Philosophy
@ -1498,3 +1502,40 @@ FAQ
PHP/CURL is a module that comes with the regular PHP package. It depends on PHP/CURL is a module that comes with the regular PHP package. It depends on
and uses libcurl, so you need to have libcurl installed properly before and uses libcurl, so you need to have libcurl installed properly before
PHP/CURL can be used. PHP/CURL can be used.
8. Development
8.1 Why does curl use C89?
As with everything in curl, there's a history and we keep using what we've
used before until someone brings up the subject and argues for and works on
changing it.
We started out using C89 in the 1990s because that was the only way to write
a truly portable C program and have it run as widely as possible. C89 was for
a long time even necessary to make things work on otherwise considered modern
platforms such as Windows. Today, we don't really know how many users that
still require the use of a C89 compiler.
We will continue to use C89 for as long as nobody brings up a strong enough
reason for us to change our minds. The core developers of the project don't
feel restricted by this and we are not convinced that going C99 will offer us
enough of a benefit to warrant the risk of cutting off a share of users.
8.2 Will curl be rewritten?
In one go: no. Little by little over time? Maybe.
Over the years, new languages and clever operating environments come and go.
Every now and then the urge apparently arises to request that we rewrite curl
in another language.
Some the most important properties in curl are maintaining the API and ABI
for libcurl and keeping the behavior for the command line tool. As long as we
can do that, everything else is up for discussion. To maintain the ABI, we
probably have to maintain a certain amount of code in C, and to remain rock
stable, we will never risk anything by rewriting a lot of things in one go.
That said, we can certainly offer more and more optional backends written in
other languages, as long as those backends can be plugged in at build-time.
Back-ends can be written in any language, but should probably provide APIs
usable from C to ease integration and transition.