On Wednesday 29 November 2006 23:28, Axel Bojer wrote: > Louis Desjardins skrev: > > Craig Bradney a ?crit : > >> On Wednesday 29 November 2006 20:46, Gregory Pittman wrote: > >>> avox wrote: > >>>> Gregory Pittman wrote: > >>>>> I just noticed recently that 1.3.3.x versions cannot import 1.3.4cvs > >>>>> files. Is this going to be a permanent issue? > >>>> > >>>> Yes. We only provide backward compatibility, not forward > >>>> compatibility. 134cvs is a development version with a lot of file > >>>> format changes. You should only use it for playing around and use 133x > >>>> for production work. > >>> > >>> Do you think we might ever see an option to save in an older format? In > >>> other words, have the possibility from 1.3.4 to save into a > >>> 1.3.3.x-compatible format? > >>> A slightly different version of "backward compatibility." > >> > >> Yes it might be possible. One of the things I extended in 1.3.4cvs is > >> the separation of the loader and saver plugins. We *may* extend the > >> 1.3.3.x loader plugin to also be a saver plugin.. however, this will not > >> happen in 1.3.4, and more than likely not in 1.3.5. > > > > Just a thought on Greg's idea. I wonder whether saving in an older > > format would be as good as it seems. Does that still make sense from the > > free software point of view? Anyone wishing to upgrade can do so at no > > cost. If a user come across a file the app can't open, it means the app > > should be upgraded. That's it. We have lots of reflexes from the old > > world. > > The problem woould be for people depending on the repositories of their > favorite distribution, they will perhaps not know how, or want to learn, > how to comile from the source-package. And using source packages also > clutters up the system (for instance in debian distributions it does not > fit very well with the apt-get system), therefore for many it would not
This is untrue. Apart from any build dependencies and people learning to build an application, you can simply install into a directory in your home directory, and delete/reinstall/upgrade at any time. You should not install into /usr or whatever system prefix is used on the selected OS in such a situation. Regards Craig
