[ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/AVRO-1340?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=15571929#comment-15571929 ]
Dave Latham commented on AVRO-1340: ----------------------------------- I think that's similar to other defaults in Avro. If you don't have a default value for a field, and the writer changes the schema so that you can't find a value for it, you get an error. If you want to be forward compatible - make a default and handle it. > use default to allow old readers to specify default enum value when > encountering new enum symbols > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Key: AVRO-1340 > URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/AVRO-1340 > Project: Avro > Issue Type: Improvement > Components: spec > Environment: N/A > Reporter: Jim Donofrio > Priority: Minor > > The schema resolution page says: > > if both are enums: > > if the writer's symbol is not present in the reader's enum, then an > error is signalled. > This makes it difficult to use enum's because you can never add a enum value > and keep old reader's compatible. Why not use the default option to refer to > one of enum values so that when a old reader encounters a enum ordinal it > does not recognize, it can default to the optional schema provided one. If > the old schema does not provide a default then the older reader can continue > to fail as it does today. -- This message was sent by Atlassian JIRA (v6.3.4#6332)