How would php_yaz know whether to build for php4 or php5? Would there be variants? Or would there be two ports, php4_yaz and php5_yaz? I think the latter is how the Python extensions are being done but I don't exactly know why that's better than using variants.
See also the recent discussion about being able to "select" which version of php (python, gcc, etc.) you want to use.
the lesson learned from the python ports is: use a version prefix from the beginning. The current problems with "which version of Python is a py- port for?" stems from the idea, that we will always have a selected Python version that is our macports-system Python. For the PHP ports, I'd say lets do it right from the start: Do the naming with "php4-name" and "php5-name". This also has the advantage that a user can test his PHP stuff with both versions simultaneously w/o needing to activate and reactivate a bunch of ports.
I exptect us to get a clean solution to not having to keep full copies of two ports for both php4 and php5 ports with the GSoC tasks. But for now, let's just duplicate them and keep our collection easy to understand at first glance. (unlike the current python state)
Ok, I've got a port ready for an rrdtool extension to PHP5. Following what you've said, I'm going to call it "www/php5-rrdtool". Mark