| Re: [tools-pmc] thoughts on when to increment minor version |
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I just wanted to add my thoughts to this thread, on the issue if a "new API" always deserves a minor increment. I think "you are both right" (i.e. both Oomph and GEF) -- that, technically it should have a minor increment, to make it easier for consumers to "require it" (via range settings) if they need it BUT in some cases it can cause a lot of disruption to consumers if they do not require it, but find they have to update their version ranges anyway, "for no good reason" from their point of view. In some cases it may even break their ability to run their code on several versions of Eclipse, without having split streams, re-building, etc. Naturally, that is one of the differences between GEF (low level, prereq'd by many) and Oomph (high level, prereq'd by few). The Platform PMC recently had a long discussion of this (see Bug 499164). I suspect the guidelines should be updated to address this issue. I will also point out this is one of the advantages of using versions on packages, but producers to 'export' the versions, and consumers to use "import package" versions, since then only those that explicitly require that package would have to change. |