Just a couple of quick points on this. Though the php version was a convert from the perl version, very little remains from the original port. The last couple of versions have been extensively rewritten already. Not from the ground up, but quite a change nonetheless. Definitely more to be done though.
As for code bloat. This isn't really that much of a factor since most everything is handled by it's own script. Obviously the code does grow abit but I don't try to do a ton of different things in the smallest number of scripts possible like alot of software I've seen. The php version has been around for a couple of years now. In that time here's the growth of some of the main scripts since 5.4.
ubbt.inc.php has gone from 58k to 70k
ubbthreads.php has gone from 13k to 18k
postlist.php has gone from 37k to 39k
showflat.php has gone from 35k to 38k
showthreaded.php has gone from 38k to 40k
Anywho, yeah, there is a ton of room for improvement and we'll keep up and do whatever is necessary be it a total rewrite or whatever. Been doing this for almost 6 years now and I've never been one to look to the competition for how good the software is or what we should be doing next and we've done ok so far
