Bonk,
You have to bear in mind that I do not have the time to read through every post in every topic. Nor do I have the time to read the PHP manual from cover to cover. If accelerators have not been updated for the latest version of PHP this is not my concern. The only thing that I care about is that SMF is written to work on all valid (and even not so valid) server configurations - and is optimised for the current issue of software.
As I've already stated, SMF does not use several hundred levels of recusion - it uses it as appropriate for the functionality. I'd be in full agreement that if a function is recursing hundreds of times there is something seriously wrong.
As far as preg_* on windows not working well goes - that's very much a platform issue. preg_ functions are used in SMf for very good reason, writing a custom regex function in PHP would clearly be slower.
I'm more than happy to work with people to make SMF work on their current server configuration, but only if it's vaguely sensible. Forgive me if I'm wrong (As I've said - I don't have time to dedicate to every topic) - you are trying to run SMF 1.1 on PHP 5.1.1 with an accelerator that doesn't work on 5.1.1 - I can't see how you can blame SMF for not working in this situation.
I believe that you are basically in agreement with me (i.e. ISAPI plain doesn't work caching PHP 5.1.1) - but if this is the case then I don't see why you decided to write a ranting post about it in the first instance, without ensuring that it was, indeed, a problem with SMF.
Regards,
Grudge
PS - I've had 5 pints and a bottle of wine so forgive any incohersion
