Since March, there has been a wiki at wiki.php.net. The most interesting section is probably wiki.php.net/rfc, which - as the name implies - contains RFC's for improvements of the language. I've rambled on about closures and lambdas before, but as you can see, there is now an accepted patch. Whether it'll make it into 5.3 is unlikely at this point, but it looks like it'll at least be coming with 5.4 and/or 6.0.

He also points out the php-internals mailing list and the summaries that Steph Fox has written up weekly about the list's latest conversations.

The problem isn't that namespaces are bad, it's that these arcane structures seem to have so little impact on development in PHP today for many many people. Does that mean it's unimportant?

He talks about the real value of namespaces, a comparison to type hinting's inclusion, the current amount of (needless?) traffic on the php.internals list and his opinions on why namespaces are valid.

As an outsider looking in, and being a realist instead of a fanboy, I'm finding it extremely hard to believe that PHP is going to continue its much hyped and proclaimed success in its current circumstances.

From his point of view there's a few things that, if the web was exposed to (like "tiffs that occur on PHP Internals") PHP's popularity would fade quite a bit.

As much as I hate to say this...You guys really need to take some advice from Ruby Devs. I've been watching the Dev List over there and following it as well, and I don't see even half of the virtual crap-flinging that's almost become an everyday occurrence on the PHP Internals list.