[cairo] Updated ROADMAP for cairo 1.2.0 (and beyond)

[Carl Worth]

On Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:50:47 +0200, Adib Taraben wrote:
>
> So this means every new version you change the API?

Yes. If cairo gets new functionality to target a new version, then the
application will have to change to start taking advantage of that new
functionality. This really isn't different than any other
functionality.

> I would prefer this:
>    cairo_svg_surface_create_1_2 (int major_version, int minor_version)
> If you would really prevent enums or strings.

While the numeric nature of the interface is nice, this doesn't
actually advertise what guarantees cairo is making for the application
here.

For example, Emmanuel's initial implementation of the SVG backend
would emit SVG using features from SVG 1.2. What he has now
implemented is new functionality that allows this backend to restrict
itself to using only features available in SVG 1.1.

Now let's imagine we had one cairo release of the original (1.2 only)
stuff and a subsequent one with the (1.1 or 1.2) stuff. What's an
application that requires the 1.1 restriction supposed to do here?

With a single, numeric API as above, the best the application can do
is call the function, hope it works, and carefully handle a run-time
error if it fails.

However, by associating the new functionality with new API, we now get
compilation-time verification that the functionality exists, (perhaps
link-time failure in case of a broken installation), and no need to
introduce any run-time error for this.

The earlier the error checks are, (in the sense of compile-time
vs. run-time), the better.

Does that make sense?

-Carl
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