>>>>> "Roy" == Roy T Fielding <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Roy> On Jul 28, 2005, at 2:46 PM, Bryan Cantrill wrote:
>> For an operating system, the constraints of existing interfaces are a
>> _technical_ problem, _not_ just a business problem.
Roy> A technical problem is something for which a technical solution can
Roy> be created to resolve the problem.
Okay. But the technical solution might be to design the change so as
to maintain compatibility.
Roy> It is fine for incompatible changes to require a major revision
Roy> number to change, but the decisions on whether or not to develop
Roy> such a change and when to release new major revisions are *business
Roy> decisions*.
I think this is the heart of the issue. Dealing with the transition
from SunOS 4 to SunOS 5 was considered so painful that the people in
charge (inside Sun) said "never again". So it seems like Sun's options
are
- plan for the possibility of having a SunOS 6 someday
- convince the community that there is sufficient freedom to do cool
stuff while staying within the compatibility constraints currently
used by Solaris[1]
- be prepared for a fork
mike
[1]For what it's worth, there is some wiggle room. Interfaces that are
tagged as Unstable can have incompatible changes in minor (dot)
releases. Interfaces that are tagged as Obsolete can go away in a minor
release.
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