Sean, When Cami refers to "automatic dependencies" he's referring to the fact that with ruby-gems one can specify a range of versions that will satisfy the dependencies for your project instead of a single version as is done with Metacello today.
"automatic dependencies" actually only work (and you'll like this Sean) if the project is using Semantic Versioning[1]. If a project doesn't follow the semantic version specification for version numbering, then version ranges are also meaningless. One MUST be able to look at a version number and be able to distinguish between API changes, backwards compatible functionality changes and backwards compatible bugfixes ... If a project follows this convention, then one can specify a dependency that allows for updating only for bugfixes ... In the absence of any version name convention, one must be explicit ... I imagine that today, very few projects actually apply Semantic Versioning to their version numbering scheme, so we must start by adopting Semantic Versioning ... Metacello can handle the mechanics of Semantic Versioning, but it is up to the developers to adhere to the specification. Dale [1] http://semver.org/ ----- Original Message ----- | From: "Sean P. DeNigris" <s...@clipperadams.com> | To: pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr | Sent: Friday, April 19, 2013 5:27:55 AM | Subject: Re: [Pharo-project] Metacello configuration conventions | | > Metacello supports both, but not at the same time. Either you mark your | > configuration with fixed versions (best for patches) or with symbolic | > versions (best for releases). | I don't understand this. If you don't want your dependencies upgraded, you | don't change the versions referenced in your new version, if you do, you | manually change them. Either way, you make a new version, whether it's a | patch, enhancement, or total overhaul. | | The symbolic versions, OTOH, map your versions to their status on respective | platforms. You would do this for every new version. | | | | ----- | Cheers, | Sean | -- | View this message in context: | http://forum.world.st/Metacello-configuration-conventions-tp4681777p4682563.html | Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk mailing list archive at Nabble.com
