[TYPO3-50-general] Feature request: Running different versions of a class in parallel

[Elmar Hinz]

Hello,

I want to come up with a feature request for v5. Maybe it's already planned,
maybe it's an inbuild feature of PHP6.

Today one of the big issues with TYPO3 is backward compatibility. Once a
class has an API and a behaviour, you can't simply optimize it, because  of
the dependent classes. You can extend it, but you can't freely change it.

I would find it extremely useful, if I could say, which version of a class
or component I want to use. I would say that my current version of
component X requires version 1.x.x - 1.9.x. 

The mechanism Robert designs for aspect orientation already manipulates the
code. It should be possible in the same step to rename classes to respect
the version of a component. For example:

 T3_MyClass could become T3_MyClass_1_16_2

Certainly you never hardcode a call to T3_MyClass_1_16_2. That would be the
component managers job. You simply write T3_MyClass and set the required
version in ext_emconf.php or whereever the dependency is defined.

Regards

Elmar