Re: Supporting multiple APIs simultaneously

[Andrew John Hughes]

On Sat, 2004-07-03 at 11:31, Andrew Haley wrote:
> Andrew John Hughes writes:
>  >
>  > Well, my suggestion would be that the branches are more for the benefit
>  > of users rather than developers.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but the
>  > japitools comparisons suggest that 1.1 is just about supported.  This
>  > would seem to be a solid base to give to those who want something to
>  > work with, at least for the time being, as a Java replacement without
>  > having to wonder about holes.  As far as developers go, I would expect
>  > focus to mainly stay on 1.4 as it is now, with appropriate patches that
>  > also cover 1.1 being added there.  However, if you think that would be
>  > too much effort, then I can see your point to an extent.  I do think
>  > there is something to be said for giving users something more stable
>  > though, rather than the kind of random implementation guarantees we give
>  > now.
> 
> Sure, but the problem is that branches, unless tended carefully, will
> wither.  If people wish assiduously to maintain a separate 1.1 branch,
> that will be fine.  But that should be an addition to current
> development, not an alternative.
> 
> Andrew.
Agreed.  The idea of having a stable branch (1.1 being the first
iteration) of this is to give developers who want to use Classpath
something concrete to work with.  I don't foresee such a branch needing
anything more than the odd patch from the main development branch
(currently targeting 1.4, although maybe 1.2 may be a better target if
we want a faster release cycle).  The stable branch would form the basis
of a solid release version, matching a certain API and not gaining new
features, only bug fixes.  Quite a few projects have this concept of a
release version and a current development version (Linux and GTK+ would
be obvious examples, as this is distinguished by the odd/even release
numbers)
-- 
Andrew :-)
 
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