API breakages - file bugs / update HACKING.txt ?

[Jelmer Vernooij]

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John Arbash Meinel wrote:
> Toshio Kuratomi wrote: | Martin Pool wrote:
>
> ...
>
> |> The first does not seem so practical: not adding new APIs during
>  that |> period would limit our development. |> | Err... Perhaps I
> could have been clearer.  API additions aren't the | problem.
> Removing of API, new mandatory arguments to methods, etc are. |  So
> you could add new API for six month and deprecate methods that they
>  | replace/need to get rid of in general.  And then have one
> release that's | a housecleaning release where incompatibilities
> saved up for six months | made.
>
> We rarely remove an API completely or add new mandatory arguments
> without deprecating. It is something I know I always look for in a
> review. I think what is hurting Jelmer is new non-mandatory
> arguments. Because the "client" code is supplying them, and since
> he overrode the function and doesn't have it... breakage.
It's not just new mandatory arguments., it's also public APIs
disappearing without deprecation. For example, the public constructor
of KnitVersionedFile lost two arguments in 1.4.

Thanks for your and Martins replies in this thread. In the future,
I'll just bring up breakages when I hit them so we can look at whether
it is feasible to add proper deprecation before the release.

Cheers,

Jelmer
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