Unpublishing API post 4.0

[Wols Lists]

On 13/02/13 09:02, Stephan Bergmann wrote:
> On 02/08/2013 06:01 PM, Kohei Yoshida wrote:
>> 1) Try to limit API changes to the major releases (4.0, 5.0, 6.0 etc).
>>
>> 2) API changes in minor and micro releases are still considered only if
>> it's really really necessary. Otherwise, wait until the next major
>> release.
> 
> I would weaken that to just one "really" for minor releases.
> 
> (Also, considering just major and minor releases, we do not have the
> mismatch problem between lexicographical order of release numbers and
> chronological order of releases.  At least that is my understanding of
> how we plan releases.)
> 
> Stephan

And if you want to avoid hiccups like it going in 4.0.1 and 4.1 and not
knowing which is later, then just adopt the kernel approach.

Which is that ALL changes have to go in the latest development release,
and then and only then are back-ported to currently supported releases.

Which also has the useful side-effect that bugfixes etc can't get lost.

(Okay, it could have a failure mode if 4.2 is the development version
and 4.0.x and 4.1.x are still both supported, but that's probably
liveable with, especially if dependencies can be specified as "4.1.2+ or
4.0.6+" style.)

Cheers,
Wol
(Making a re-appearance after a difficult while of home-life...)