Php with mysqli, mbstring and xsl extensions

Question

I don't understand why php isn't build with mysqli and mbstring extensions since mysql4 is installed and there are a lot of languages that need multibytes strings. Here is a PKGBUILD that enable them. I also added xsl extension to use xsl files with php.
# $Id: PKGBUILD,v 1.51 2004/12/16 22:03:19 judd Exp $
# Maintainer: dorphell <[email protected]>
# Contributor: Benoit Chesneau <[email protected]>
pkgname=php
pkgver=5.0.3
pkgrel=2
pkgdesc="A high-level scripting language"
url="http://www.php.net"
backup=(etc/php.ini)
depends=('openssl' 'libjpeg' 'freetype2' 'libpng' 'pam'
'gdbm' 'libxml2' 'openldap' 'ncurses' 'curl' 'libxslt')
makedepends=('apache' 'mysql' 'imap' 'postgresql' 'bzip2' 'smtp-server'
'gd' 'fam' 'sqlite3' 'unixodbc')
source=(http://www.php.net/distributions/$pkgname-$pkgver.tar.gz php.ini)
md5sums=('bf89557056ce34d502e20e24071616c7' 'd5b9b37fbb746f0967d795763106735a')
build() {
cd $startdir/src/$pkgname-$pkgver
./configure --with-apxs2 --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc
--with-layout=PHP
--with-ttf --enable-mailparse --with-config-file-scan-dir=/etc
--enable-bcmath=shared --enable-calendar=shared --enable-ftp=shared
--enable-gd-native-ttf --enable-magic-quotes --enable-posix=shared
--enable-session --enable-shared --enable-shmop=shared --with-imap
--with-imap-ssl --with-ncurses --with-readline --with-sqlite=shared
--enable-sysvsem=shared --enable-sysvshm=shared --enable-track-vars
--enable-trans-sid --enable-safe-mode --enable-sockets=shared
--enable-xml --with-bz2=shared --with-curl --with-mime-magic
--with-unixODBC=shared
--enable-dba --without-db2 --without-db3 --with-inifile --with-flatfile
--with-gdbm --with-freetype-dir=/usr --with-gd=shared --enable-exif
--with-jpeg-dir=/usr --with-mysql=/usr --with-mysqli=/usr/bin/mysql_config
--with-ldap=shared
--with-mysql-sock=/tmp/mysql.sock --with-openssl --with-gettext
--with-pear=/usr/share/pear --with-dom --with-dom-xslt
--with-pgsql=shared --with-pgsql-sock=/tmp/pgsql.sock
--with-png-dir=/usr --with-regex=php --with-zlib --with-fam=shared
--with-xsl
--enable-mbstring=all --enable-mbregex
# fixes a build error in sqlite support
ln -s main/php_config.h ./config.h
make || return 1
mkdir -p $startdir/pkg/usr/lib/apache
# cp config_vars.mk config_vars.old
# sed "s|^INSTALL_IT.*$|INSTALL_IT = apxs -i -a -S LIBEXECDIR=$startdir/pkg/usr/lib/apache -n php4 libs/libphp4.so|" config_vars.old >config_vars.mk
sed -i "s|-i -a -n php5|-i -n php5|g" Makefile
make INSTALL_ROOT=$startdir/pkg EXTENSION_DIR=/usr/lib/php install
cp ../php.ini $startdir/pkg/etc

Answer 1

i suggest filing a feature request through the bug tracker.
As for why such features may not be compiled in is that whoever maintains the package may have never had the need to have such features in php or experienced any issue because of it. You will experience this with many distros so I suggest not getting accusatory and simply request the feature through the proper channels.
Each persons needs and experience are different and that is why developers write their code to encompass as many features as their users request.  How robust a package needs to be in arch is up to people like you giving the crucial feedback.
(btw i don't see why your request would not be granted. I suggest the feature request though because i know the maintainer of the PHP package is not a frequent visitor to this forum but he will get your request if you make to the bug tracker)