Skip to main content

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] [List Home]
Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] Unannounced Changes Have Unforeseen Consequences

I like the idea of 5.0 for API removal. To minimize impact on adopters:
why not schedule the jump to 5.0 for Neon+1 as to give projects a chance
to include more removal of deprecated API at once? I believe the currently
discussed API removal could easily wait until Neon+1? Then API cleanup
would be a prominent theme of that release.

Stephan

On 09/14/2015 05:13 PM, Ed Willink wrote:
Hi

Sorry Ian. See https://wiki.eclipse.org/Version_Numbering#Versioning_features

/Increment the feature's major number if any contained plug-in or feature increases their major number //
/
It is certainly possible for plugin major version changes to be a creeping disease but the feature changes with the first plugin.

If different plugins change every milestone, you maximize difficulties for consumers.

Much better to go for 5.x outright and we all take the hit just once.

     Regards

         Ed Willink

On 14/09/2015 16:02, Ian Bull wrote:
I may be wrong, but I don't think that updating a single bundles major version requires the product version number to be updated.
Eclipse currently ships with bundles numbered from 1.x (jface.databinding) to 8.x (jetty) and we've been using 4.x as the product
version for years. I agree that we should follow our semantic version rules for bundles & features. Our entire base platform (OSGi
& p2) depend on this.

Does anyone have a link to how the product version relates to the bundles contained within the product?

Cheers,
Ian



On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 7:44 AM, Konstantin Komissarchik
<<mailto:konstantin.komissarchik@xxxxxxxxxx>konstantin.komissarchik@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

    I, for one, would like to have further discussion on the topic of platform strictly following Semantic Versioning as it’s an
    important tool in ensuring that we create valid installations that don’t break with class not found or method not found errors.

    - Konstantin

    *From:*cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx>
    [mailto:cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx>] *On Behalf Of
    *John Arthorne
    *Sent:* Monday, September 14, 2015 7:27 AM
    *To:* cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
    *Subject:* Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] Unannounced Changes Have Unforeseen Consequences

    Hi everyone,

    This has been a great discussion. I have a few points to add:

    - It is very important for the Platform (and other projects) to have the right to occasionally remove API. In a nutshell,
    maintaining API forever generally benefits existing consumers but adds pain and cost for those maintaining the API. As the
    number of API maintainers has dwindled, the Platform made a deliberate choice about 5 years ago to slightly relax its previous
    stringent API maintenance practices. There are APIs in Platform none of the remaining committers understand or use, and it
    creates a large burden on them to maintain it. The huge API surface area of the Platform also creates a burden for new
    consumers. When there are 5 available ways to do something with the Platform API, removing some of the oldest and least
    recommended options helps new adopters chose the right path. While this depends on your perspective, I think moving the needle
    slightly in favor of committers and new adopters is beneficial for the future of the Platform, even if there is some impact
    for legacy code consumers.

    - In this particular case, the Platform API removal process was not completely followed [1, 2]. The removal is being reverted
    for the next Platform integration build. The API may still be removed in the June 2017 simultaneous release, so if you have
    already taken steps to adopt the changes, consider yourself ahead of the game :) It is important for API removals to be widely
    announced, and a justification given to the community who will be impacted by it. I apologize for this not being done in this
    case.

    - On the topic of semantic versioning, there is no easy answer. Incrementing the major version number of a bundle in the
    Platform is guaranteed to have a massive impact on adopters, even if they did not use the particular API that was affected.
    Nearly every annual release of the Eclipse Platform has had some very minor API breakage, which is always carefully documented
    in the migration guide. If we strictly followed Semantic Versioning, the major version of much of the Platform would now be
    around 12 or so by now, and adopters would have learned to completely remove the upper bound from their version ranges to
    avoid being constantly broken at the bundle metadata level. What we have always done in the Platform is try to have the
    version numbers reflect the anticipated overall impact on clients. In most release, the API is 99.9% compatible and we don't
    let the rare exception dictate the overall version number. I still believe this approach minimizes the total impact on
    consumers, but if the community feels a stricter interpretation of SemVer is more valuable, it is worth discussing.

    Links:

    [1]
    <https://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse/API_Central/Deprecation_Policy>https://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse/API_Central/Deprecation_Policy

    [2]
    <https://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse/API_Central/API_Removal_Process>https://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse/API_Central/API_Removal_Process

    john

        ----- Original message -----
        From: Ed Merks <<mailto:ed.merks@xxxxxxxxx>ed.merks@xxxxxxxxx>
        Sent by: cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx>
        To: Cross project issues <<mailto:cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
        Cc:
        Subject: [cross-project-issues-dev] Unannounced Changes Have Unforeseen Consequences
        Date: Sat, Sep 12, 2015 4:07 AM

        Hi,

        It was brought to my attention that
        org.eclipse.jface.viewers.TableTreeViewer has been deleted.  Yes, I know
        it's deprecated, but nevertheless it was once API before being
        deprecated so deleting it is a breaking change.  I don't recall there
        being an announcement to begin deleting arbitrary deprecated API.

        In any case, I can't necessarily commit to making the necessary
        changes.  As such I can't commit to contributing EMF Core to Neon.

        I would suggest reconsidering the strategy of breaking APIs and most
        certainly suggest any such actions ought to be announced and discussed
        before such actions are taken.

        Regards,
        Ed
        _______________________________________________
        cross-project-issues-dev mailing list
        cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
        To change your delivery options, retrieve your password, or unsubscribe from this list, visit
        https://dev.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/cross-project-issues-dev


    _______________________________________________
    cross-project-issues-dev mailing list
    cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
    To change your delivery options, retrieve your password, or unsubscribe from this list, visit
    https://dev.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/cross-project-issues-dev




--
R. Ian Bull | EclipseSource Victoria | +1 250 477 7484
http://eclipsesource.com | <http://twitter.com/eclipsesource>http://twitter.com/eclipsesource


_______________________________________________
cross-project-issues-dev mailing list
cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
To change your delivery options, retrieve your password, or unsubscribe from this list, visit
https://dev.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/cross-project-issues-dev


No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com>
Version: 2015.0.6125 / Virus Database: 4419/10638 - Release Date: 09/14/15




_______________________________________________
cross-project-issues-dev mailing list
cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
To change your delivery options, retrieve your password, or unsubscribe from this list, visit
https://dev.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/cross-project-issues-dev




Back to the top