- Java-style. You don't like it, I'd argue it's not Java-style, but I know what you mean. I don't think this is worth debating much, it's just opinions :)

- PHP 5.3. Yes. 5.2 has been EOL for almost 1 year now (http://www.php.net/archive/2010.php#id2010-12-16-1), 5.4 is coming fast. I don't mean to be harsh but you will have to get over this one. ZF2, Symfony2, Flow3 are built on 5.3. Drupal8 will be too. Typo3 v5 will be.

- Dependencies on Symfony Components. We are trying to build a package manager here. Something that shold help and promote code re-use, and you would like us to avoid re-using code in the process? I think this is missing the point. Also, you have to realize that most end users will never have to see that, since they will only interact with the "binary" composer.phar file.

I sincerely hope you join the effort.