On May 9, 2009, at 20:50, Duncan Coutts wrote:
The question is this:
Should we allow compatible API additions to a library in a minor release of the platform?
Yes, I think minor additions should be allowed for two reasons: - a maintainer might not bother to release for a minor platform revision unless he has actually a bug to fix; thus a user that fails to compile a program on an earlier minor platform version likely tries to build against a buggy library anyway. Upgrading is always better and faster than debugging. - it is less of a burden for a maintainer who can keep one working copy of his/her library, rather than an additional one that corresponds to the major platform release. Furthermore, with two copies, it is always necessary to distinguish between fixes and additions. Sometimes patches are more logical if they contain both. My 2p, Axel.