On Jun 11, 2013, at 2:23 PM, Shazron <[email protected]> wrote:
> Whatever we decide can we be extra loud about it? Blog posts, tweets,
> google groups.
>
> On Tuesday, June 11, 2013, Joe Bowser wrote:
>
>> OK, We actually did deprecate this properly. I don't know how I
>> missed this edit Simon did on the Wiki:
>>
>> https://wiki.apache.org/cordova/DeprecationPolicy
Yeah, something on this tack. So if it was deprecated properly, why is there
noise in the plugin ecosystem? Joe/Simon did the right things, but for whatever
reason it didn't connect with the consumers.
If we think this is just a matter of consumer communication, here are some
potential ways to improve that:
- add to cordova-docs a top-level "Upgrading Plugins Guide". I think Michael
Billau had started one and might have a draft. And Simon has a blog post on
this topic.
- add to cordova-docs a top-level "Deprecation Index" that has:
- pointers to other places in the docs (i.e., device.name,
org.apache.cordova.api.Plugin) where there is detail on which things are going
away. And the history of which things already have gone away.
- in that detail, the version or date when they are going away, and
link to the Upgrading Plugins Guide or Upgrading Cordova <platformX> Guide or
some other reference that says what to do so you don't break when they do go
away.
- these would move it off the wiki into the docs, because perhaps
consumers don't monitor the wiki. Perhaps all that should remain on the wiki is
the policy definition. It does seem that the wiki is really geared to
contributors/committers, not consumers.
- add to cordova-docs a top-level summary of "What's New in Cordova x.y". Shaz
and Joe (and Simon) do a great job posting that on their blogs, but feels like
there ought to be something in the docs. In lieu of making more work, just
copy-paste their text into an md file for that in the docs (if they are OK with
that). That can include reminders of deprecation hits.
Is there an "official" news feed that could be monitored by plugin authors or
other Cordova consumers for changes like this? I found the @apachecordova
Twitter account. But perhaps there is something offered by apache-infra or
elsewhere better suited to that kind of content. Whatever it is, including a
top-level pointer to it in cordova-docs so consumers know they should be
monitoring it. And so they can go back months later and look at the history
easily (i.e., why did my plugin break in 2.2?).
Comments?
-- Marcel Kinard
