Not sure I understand fully, but isn't what you describe already the case? Backward compatibility is one of the key aspects of NetBeans going many years back now.
Gj On Tue, Aug 7, 2018 at 8:58 AM, * William <william.full.m...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Thank you Geertjan, > > I understand the licienseing point -- Yes in that specific case, yes the > plugin needs to be compatible. > > I am unconcerned about specific missing plugins. I had hoped my point was > clear enough as this is something that applies to a Great Many products > that use "plug-in" and "add-on" mechanisms. > > I feel that products in general should provide 'useability' support for > compliant and compatible plug-ins that work from the previous version. > > In the case of Netbeans as on specific example, v9.0 *would* permit > support for v8.2 plugins. > > And only the ones that work/are compatible and compliant with the > licensing and infrastructiure/platform changes. > > I really think that would be a big plus for any platform/product. > > > > On 3 August 2018 at 17:57, Geertjan Wielenga < > geertjan.wiele...@googlemail.com.invalid> wrote: > >> The problems are a bit more complex than how you describe them, in the >> case of Apache NetBeans. >> >> Take for example 'org.jdesktop.beansbinding'. >> >> This is a library that has been part of NetBeans for many years. And it's >> been used by a variety of plugins as well, such as some of those you seem >> to be trying to install. >> >> However, the licensing of that library is GPL. The Apache Software >> Foundation does not allow Apache projects to distribute GPL-based libraries. >> >> So, we had to remove it from Apache NetBeans. >> >> And now some of the plugins that rely on that library will not work. >> >> There are other similar cases, though not too many. Another example is >> Hibernate (http://hibernate.org/community/license), which had to be >> removed in order for Apache NetBeans to be acceptable to the Apache >> Software Foundation. >> >> >
