Hi!
We previously decided that we does not need to maintain API
compatibility within mistakes done in alpha/beta versions.
So interfaces does not need to be versioned between unstable releases.
Well, you may not need to maintain API compatibility, but there does
need to be a clear and systematic way of signalling which version of an
interface you are working with.
The IUtil interface is a case in point.
For Firebird 3 it's version 13.
For Firebird 4 beta 1 it's version 21 and the following got appended to
the interface
IUtilImpl_vTable.getDecFloat16 := @IUtilImpl_getDecFloat16Dispatcher;
IUtilImpl_vTable.getDecFloat34 := @IUtilImpl_getDecFloat34Dispatcher;
IUtilImpl_vTable.getTransactionByHandle :=
@IUtilImpl_getTransactionByHandleDispatcher;
IUtilImpl_vTable.getStatementByHandle :=
@IUtilImpl_getStatementByHandleDispatcher;
IUtilImpl_vTable.decodeTimeTz := @IUtilImpl_decodeTimeTzDispatcher;
IUtilImpl_vTable.decodeTimeStampTz :=
@IUtilImpl_decodeTimeStampTzDispatcher;
IUtilImpl_vTable.encodeTimeTz := @IUtilImpl_encodeTimeTzDispatcher;
IUtilImpl_vTable.encodeTimeStampTz :=
@IUtilImpl_encodeTimeStampTzDispatcher;
For Firebird 4 beta 2, it's version 24 and the interface gets more
appended to it i.e.
function getInt128(status: IStatus): IInt128;
procedure decodeTimeTzEx(status: IStatus; timeTz:
ISC_TIME_TZ_EXPtr; hours: CardinalPtr; minutes: CardinalPtr; seconds:
CardinalPtr; fractions: CardinalPtr; timeZoneBufferLength: Cardinal;
timeZoneBuffer: PAnsiChar);
procedure decodeTimeStampTzEx(status: IStatus; timeStampTz:
ISC_TIMESTAMP_TZ_EXPtr; year: CardinalPtr; month: CardinalPtr; day:
CardinalPtr; hours: CardinalPtr; minutes: CardinalPtr; seconds:
CardinalPtr; fractions: CardinalPtr; timeZoneBufferLength: Cardinal;
timeZoneBuffer: PAnsiChar);
For Firebird 4 RC1, the version number gets reset to 4 and the Firebird
4 extensions change such that
IUtilImpl_vTable.getTransactionByHandle :=
@IUtilImpl_getTransactionByHandleDispatcher;
IUtilImpl_vTable.getStatementByHandle :=
@IUtilImpl_getStatementByHandleDispatcher;
are removed. I fell into the usual trap this morning of testing out IBX
with an updated Firebird.pas and forgetting to replace the Firebird beta
1 client library. Result a call to what should have been decodeTimeTz
came back with a "Transaction Handle error"! This took a little while to
work out.
The result is that you cannot treat the version number as anything other
than an identifier with version 13 and version 4 being currently the
only valid values - and a consequential need to update the list of valid
values everytime a new version of the Firebird API comes out, rather
than being able to rely on a monotonically increasing sequence for
backwards compatibility.
Perhaps what is really needed is a separate version no and "stable" flag
for each interface.
On 17/02/2021 15:33, Adriano dos Santos Fernandes wrote:
So it does not make sense to me to have more than one "version:" between
official releases.
We currently have in Util:
version: // 3.0 => 4.0 Alpha1
version: // 4.0 Beta1 => 4.0 Beta2
Should we use only one version here for v4?
Adriano
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