On Marco Tabini's weblog today, there's a new post where he discusses the different between a developer and a "developer".

There are three types of PHP developers—each with their wants and needs: Developers of PHP products, Consultants, who write code in PHP for their clients, and Developers who write code for their own use (but not for external clients).

t doesn’t take a genius to see that each of these categories is affected in a different way by a new release of PHP and will, therefore, react differently to its introduction.

He talks about each type of developer and their reactions - everything from worrying about their image (consultants) to no real response at all (independant developers). He then goes on to talk about the fact that keeping discussions of future versions of software open can only help to bring everyone up to speed.

Even a rejected idea gets people thinking — if not about anything else, then at least about the needs and wants of the community. The only losing proposition is silence.