Quick question. I have checked the FAQ and the documentation. Why doesn't mediawiki use mysqli?
Why would it?
Hello Brion,
Well, as Sylvain said, there are a few reasons NOT to support mysqli. Like, for instance, the mysql package is installed by default and the mysqli package is currently not installed by default. I'll admit, right now that's a very good reason to refrain from making it the default method.
The first reason TO use mysqli that you might care about (which was told to me by someone on #MediaWiki) is that mysqli_stmt is much faster and much more secure than mysql_query (you don't need to escape the inputs to mysqli_stmt). The API is supposedly better, but they seem equally simple to me.
The only reason *I* would like to see mysqli supported (even if it was not the default method) would be so we could use mysqli_embedded. mysqli_embedded allows people to use MediaWiki in standalone applications much easier. In fact, it would allow people to use MediaWiki without significant change in a wikipedia-on-dvd type situation.
thanks for your time,
adrian