[Bug 31103] Create documentation on problems running older versions
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=31103 Olivier Finlay Beaton olivier.bea...@gmail.com changed: What|Removed |Added Status|REOPENED|RESOLVED Resolution||FIXED --- Comment #9 from Olivier Finlay Beaton olivier.bea...@gmail.com 2011-09-24 20:46:00 UTC --- Documentation has been going well and I've started putting in Upgrade and Downgrade hints for extensions authors. Some basic stats on versions are also listed. I'll probably try to advertise it on one of our mailing lists. It still needs to be linked in from somewhere in the manual though... Closing enh request as the basic requirement is now fulfilled. -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email --- You are receiving this mail because: --- You are the assignee for the bug. You are on the CC list for the bug. ___ Wikibugs-l mailing list Wikibugs-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikibugs-l
[Bug 31103] Create documentation on problems running older versions
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=31103 Olivier Finlay Beaton olivier.bea...@gmail.com changed: What|Removed |Added Status|RESOLVED|REOPENED Version|1.14.x |unspecified Resolution|INVALID | Summary|1.14.1 new install edit |Create documentation on |fails on article Main_Page |problems running older ||versions OS/Version|Linux |All Severity|critical|enhancement --- Comment #5 from Olivier Finlay Beaton olivier.bea...@gmail.com 2011-09-22 19:06:15 UTC --- I downloaded from http://dumps.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.14/ I don't know why you assume I used a distro package. I'm setting up a testing sandbox to make sure some of my extensions (Extension:Update and Extension:Realnames) work on older versions. The first because it's about upgrading to newer stuff from older stuff, the second because it's a corp extension and my audience is on older cores (unfortunately). I often see extension authors talk about still using a deprecated method of doing things (see SpecialPage aliasing, or ShowSearchRealnames) so that they don't alianate the user base who are not always free to upgrade core. I'd like to see documentation (which I'm willing to contribute to) about the trials and tribulations (see above) of setting up sandboxes for older non-core-supported versions. It's my extension, I SUPPORT IT. But will mediawiki and it's community help me document the process of said support? I've reoppened, renamed bug to Create documentation on problems running older versions and set it enhancement for unspecified version on all platforms. Being new I don't know where to start this documentation, maybe instead of GO AWAY someone could say oh great, you want to contribute, here's where you'd probably want to do that!. -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email --- You are receiving this mail because: --- You are the assignee for the bug. You are on the CC list for the bug. ___ Wikibugs-l mailing list Wikibugs-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikibugs-l
[Bug 31103] Create documentation on problems running older versions
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=31103 --- Comment #6 from Brion Vibber br...@wikimedia.org 2011-09-22 19:23:20 UTC --- If you'd be interested in writing up your notes on a page on mediawiki.org, please feel free -- it's a wiki and should allow you to get started right away. This will also get the pages indexed for search on mediawiki.org (local search) and via google etc searches on a relevant domain. But do be aware that the MediaWiki dev community doesn't traditionally put a lot of effort into maintenance of old releases beyond a couple versions of security patch releases. You'll probably find a combination of: * old bugs that are fixed in newer versions of MediaWiki * incompatibilities between old MediaWiki code and newer versions of other packages like PHP and MySQL For instance reference-related ($foo) issues are common on newer versions of PHP, because PHP keeps changing the rules on what's an acceptable use of references. Due to historic usages from the PHP 4 era, a lot of extension hooks are common places to see this because references got used in places where, under PHP 5, they don't need to be (and now sometimes don't work). That looks like the sort of thing you're running into up above. Workarounds are basically: 1) Don't run the old versions if you can help it! 2) If you must run an old version of MediaWiki, you can either track down all those bug fixes (and still be open to whatever other bugs and security problems there are in the system)... or 3) you can downgrade the other bits of your system to match it in which case it'll more likely run... but you may be vulnerable to bugs and security problems in those other packages as well. -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email --- You are receiving this mail because: --- You are the assignee for the bug. You are on the CC list for the bug. ___ Wikibugs-l mailing list Wikibugs-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikibugs-l
[Bug 31103] Create documentation on problems running older versions
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=31103 Daniel Friesen mediawiki-b...@nadir-seen-fire.com changed: What|Removed |Added CC||mediawiki-bugs@nadir-seen-f ||ire.com --- Comment #7 from Daniel Friesen mediawiki-b...@nadir-seen-fire.com 2011-09-22 20:59:55 UTC --- (In reply to comment #5) I often see extension authors talk about still using a deprecated method of doing things (see SpecialPage aliasing, or ShowSearchRealnames) so that they don't alianate the user base who are not always free to upgrade core. ...you heard wrong. Using the deprecated method of SpecialPage aliasing has nothing to do with compatibility with old versions of MediaWiki. The new way of doing it was just never promoted enough for people to remember it existed, and the Translate extension used by TWN seams to have never bothered add support for the new format (which is what is used to actually add those translations). -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email --- You are receiving this mail because: --- You are the assignee for the bug. You are on the CC list for the bug. ___ Wikibugs-l mailing list Wikibugs-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikibugs-l
[Bug 31103] Create documentation on problems running older versions
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=31103 --- Comment #8 from Olivier Finlay Beaton olivier.bea...@gmail.com 2011-09-22 22:15:09 UTC --- I've started http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Extension_support with the aim of eventually having a document to help extension authors be backwards compatible. I'm still not sure where it fits in generally from the Manual, currently nothing links to it. I'd appreciate help in fleshing the page out and in figuring out where it fits in. It attempts to lay out some reasons why backwards compatability may matter from an extension point of view, and should go a long way to help extension authors actually do it. I'm hoping that it could also become a how do I get compliant with this new version or at least that such an effort will also be started, as what is new is eventually old. I do think some kind of not-too-all-or-nothing statement about why trying too hard for backwards compat is also horrible. Sometimes you just have to move on (the M$ lesson) -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email --- You are receiving this mail because: --- You are the assignee for the bug. You are on the CC list for the bug. ___ Wikibugs-l mailing list Wikibugs-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikibugs-l
