> -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:parrot-dev- > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Andrew Whitworth > Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 07:04 > To: [email protected] > Subject: Deprecate current PackFile API > > I should have mentioned this yesterday at #ps. With all the changes we > have planned, I think we want to insert a deprecation notice for the > current Packfile API (src/packfile/api.c, mostly) before the 3.0 > release. Our goal with that subsystem is to create a new API for the > system, and reimplement many of it's internals to be cleaner and > better. > > Most users won't use any of these functions. For instance, there are > some packfile-related functions in src/embed.c which users would be > using, and which are already covered by a separate deprecation notice > for that file. Extenders likewise probably have little use for these > functions. > > If people think that the packfile functions (PackFile_*, but also > Parrot_pf_*, primarily) are part of our public API, we should put in a > deprecation notice to cover future changes *now*. If people don't > consider this subsystem to be part of our public API, then we probably > don't need the notice. I would rather be safe here, because we have > lots of changes to this subsystem that we would like to make in the > coming months and I would hate to be slowed down or caught in a > "gotcha" kind of problem. > > If anybody is using functions from src/packfile/api.c directly, let me > know. If anybody has an opinion on this matter one way or the other, > please also let me know. I'll add in a deprecation notice later > tonight or tomorrow if there aren't any objections. > > Thanks, > > --Andrew Whitworth
I was sad to find out that our packfiles are indeed part of the API to some extent, so they will need a deprecation cycle. Thanks to bacek's work, we now have the possibility of deprecating all packfile-related functions and requiring that any manipulation by users go through the PMC interface. I don't know if the PMCs are completely stable yet (and it seems unlikely given how recently they were updated), but once they're ready I'd prefer we deprecate the externally-facing parts of the C API entirely in favor of the PMCs. Christoph _______________________________________________ http://lists.parrot.org/mailman/listinfo/parrot-dev
