On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 3:05 PM, James Cook <mo...@deepbondi.net> wrote: > On Jun 6, 2011, at 10:57 PM, Chris Smith wrote: > >> I got asked a question today about why Control.Applicative is labeled as >> "experimental" on Hackage. Perhaps that field is something of a failed >> experiment, and it remaining there is likely to confuse people. >> >> Just a thought... not sure of the best place to mention it. >> > > As far as Control.Applicative, I'm not sure to what package you're > referring. That label doesn't apply to modules, it applies to packages, and > Control.Applicative is a part of the "base" package (which is not labeled > experimental). > > Regarding the Stability field itself, I strongly believe in it. I like to > know whether code I'm thinking about using is likely to have 15 new versions > in the next month or whether its interface is likely to change drastically > with the next release. When releasing packages I also like to be able to > state that it's a work in progress and that I decline to promise forward > compatibility. If I release a package labeled "experimental", I don't feel > nearly as bad making major API changes because any users that might have > picked it up have had fair warning. On the other hand, if I've marked it > "stable" or even "provisional", I know I need to make a stronger effort to > preserve source-level compatibility. > > It's good, in my opinion, to be able to state succinctly in a standardized > way that, although it does something now, what the code does and how it does > it are probably going to change in the future. > > The name of the field could be better, though. On first exposure, people > tend to think "stability: experimental" or "stability: unstable" means the > package is likely to crash (For those who don't know, it means the API is > likely to change in future releases).
A straightforward option then would be "API stability". > > -- James > > _______________________________________________ > Haskell-Cafe mailing list > Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org > http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe > -- Work is punishment for failing to procrastinate effectively. _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
