Frank Schönheit - Sun Microsystems Germany wrote: > Hi Ariel, > >> is there already a general agreement about when API changes will be allowed? > > In my understanding, there was no definitive answer to this question in > the thread which discussed it. The general consensus seemed to be > towards "change anything you like (as long as it's reasonable) in a > major release". In my opinion, this /perhaps/ is somewhat too generous > for a major release, If that's too generous depends on the context. In the context of mandatory discussions about proposed changes it just means that there should be no mental roadblocks for proposing changes. I think that this is a good thing.
My personal take on API changes (changes I would like to suggest or to do) is more restrictive anyway, but that's only me. If possible I always would prefer changes that just need recompilations (what usually als means that Basic macros don't need any work at all as the use introspection), maybe very small and easy changes in the client code in some cases. I understand and accept that other developers at least at times would like to ask for more "generous" changes. > and /definitely/ too restrictive for all intermediate releases. If the only interest was to fix APIs: yes. But in the context of the necessity to keep the API stability on a level that is acceptable for most API users it is a good starting point. If it turns out to be too restrictive we also could think about more frequent major releases. :-) > Well, I think I'll challenge that rule sooner or later, I have a lot of > small changes to start with :). For instance, I'd like to take all those > awt/form services which effectively describe *implementations* in OOo, > and make all the "optional" properties added over the years > non-optional, to match reality. Service descriptions, especially those of "old style" services IMHO can be handled much more generously. Old style services are "documentation only". If they just describe implementations, changing this documentation will not break any existing code, as this code relied on what now gets documented anyway. I even would opt for allowing to change them *now* and IIRC we already have done such changes in some cases. Regards, Mathias -- Mathias Bauer (mba) - Project Lead OpenOffice.org Writer OpenOffice.org Engineering at Sun: http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS Please don't reply to "[email protected]". I use it for the OOo lists and only rarely read other mails sent to it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
