Re: [Haskell-cafe] Checking in packages to Hackage early in development cycle?

On Thu, 2009-03-19 at 12:56 -0400, Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH wrote:

On 2009 Mar 19, at 12:39, Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH wrote:

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On 2009 Mar 19, at 12:30, Colin Paul Adams wrote:

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>> "Max" == Max Rabkin writes:

Max> On Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 4:41 PM, Manlio Perillo Max> wrote:

Max> Personally, I think that there is little harm in releasing a Max> package if it does something useful in a not-totally-broken Max> way. Especially if you plan to extend it.

Suppose you intend to extend it, and are not sure yet if the interface will change as a result?

Generally you indicate this by changing the minor version: 0.3.0, 0.3.1, etc. have compatible APIs, but 0.4.0 has an incompatible API. And with major version 0, API breakage is expected in new releases.

We call it the Package versioning policy (PVP) http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Package_versioning_policy Package authors are encouraged but not required to follow it. In the not too distant future you will be able to explicitly opt-in, in which case we will try to check that the package does indeed follow the policy and advising authors of dependent packages about the kind of version constraints they should use.

Oh, and to address your question more directly: it's by getting your package out there where people will find it (i.e. on hackage, since that's where people look) that you get more eyes on it and hopefully more ideas as to how to evolve it.

Yes, early feedback from users is invaluable in API design. Duncan