Why? E_DEPRECATED helps a lot.
Sure it is, so set it on a global level as you test your code, but when warnings are suppressed i don't see why deprecated should be an exception.
Consider the following:
wfSuppressWarnings(); $db = &wfGetDB( DB_SLAVE ); wfRestoreWarnings();
Why don't you want to be able to be informed about such problems?
PHP 5.3 is not required for 1.17 or (currently) 1.18, so this needs B/C for PHP 5.2 if E_DEPRECATED is not defined.
Specifically because of wfDl function which drops deprecated warning messages into the page and generated LocalSettings.php file in the installer.
The other options would be to either make something like wfRealySupressWarnings which would include E_DEPRECATED or remove call of dl() function completely.
r86574 should shut up your wfDl() errors.
Pretty much user visible when running php maintenance/update.php on PHP 5.2.14:
PHP Notice: Use of undefined constant E_DEPRECATED - assumed 'E_DEPRECATED' in /var/www/komar.wikimedia.pl/htdocs/w/includes/GlobalFunctions.php on line 1780 MediaWiki 1.18alpha Updater Going to run database updates for komarwiki-komar_ Depending on the size of your database this may take a while! Abort with control-c in the next five seconds (skip this countdown with --quick) ... 4 0 ...have ipb_id field in ipblocks table. ...