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Message-ID: <4AD4DED4.2070208@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:11:00 -0400
From: Mark Miller <markrmiller@gmail.com>
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To: java-dev@lucene.apache.org
Subject: Re: Draft for java-user mail about backwards-compatibility policy
 changes
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 <9ac0c6aa0910131307r7e7e3f20nb02007b5786e5862@mail.gmail.com>
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I think it should be more clear that the devs have not come to an
agreement on this change yet, irregardless of the communities input.

Michael McCandless wrote:
> Looks good!
>
> Mike
>
> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 3:07 PM, Michael Busch <buschmic@gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I wrote a draft for a mail I'd like to send to java-user to get some
>> feedback about the proposed changes to our backwards-compatibility policy we
>> discussed here and on LUCENE-1698.
>> Let me know what you think please!
>>
>>  Michael
>>
>>
>> Hello Lucene users:
>>
>> In the past we have discussed our backwards-compatibility policy
>> frequently on the Lucene developer mailinglist and we are very tempted
>> to make some significant changes. In this mail I'd like to outline the
>> proposed changes to get some feedback from the user community.
>>
>> Our current backwards-compatibility policy regarding API changes
>> states that we can only make changes that break
>> backwards-compatibility in major releases (3.0, 4.0, etc.); the next
>> major release is the upcoming 3.0.
>>
>> Given how often we made major releases in the past in Lucene this
>> means that deprecated APIs need to stay in Lucene for a very long
>> time. E.g. if we deprecate an API in 3.1 we'll have to wait until 4.0
>> before we can remove it. This means that the code gets very cluttered
>> and adding new features gets somewhat more difficult, as attention has
>> to be paid to properly support the old *and* new APIs for a quite long
>> time.
>>
>> The current policy also leads to delaying a last minor release before
>> a major release (e.g. 2.9), because the developers consider it as the
>> last chance for a long time to introduce new APIs and deprecate old ones.
>>
>> The proposal now is to change this policy in a way, so that an API can
>> only be removed if it was deprecated in at least one release, which
>> can be a major *or* minor release. E.g. if we deprecate an API and
>> release it with 3.1, we can remove it with the 3.2 release.
>>
>> For users this means of course that a simple jar drop-in replacement
>> won't be possible anymore with almost every Lucene release (excluding
>> bugfix releases, e.g. 2.9.0->2.9.1). However, you can be sure that if
>> you're using a non-deprecated API it will be in the next release.
>>
>> Note that of course these proposed changes do not affect
>> backwards-compatibility with old index formats. I.e. it will still be
>> possible to read all 3.X indexes with any Lucene 4.X version.
>>
>> Our main goal is to find the right balance between
>> backwards-compatibility support for all the Lucene users out there and
>> fast and productive development of new features. If we get positive
>> feedback here we will call a vote on the development mailinglist where
>> the committers have to officially decide whether to make these changes or
>> not.
>>
>> Note that in any case the changes will take affect *after* the 3.0
>> release.
>>
>> On behalf of the Lucene developers,
>>  Michael Busch
>>     
>
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>   


-- 
- Mark

http://www.lucidimagination.com


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