On Mon, 6 Feb 2006 20:28:50 +0100 Gerald Dachs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> I couldn't imagine a developer could checkin something that could
> break something knowingly.

API breakage is a fact of life in unreleased software like E17.  Since
there is no release to remain compatible with, there is nothing to stop
us from changing the API as we see fit.  Even after a release there can
be API breakage, but it is usually managed better than it is for
unreleased software, involving cvs branches, warning in advance, major
version number changes, etc.

Some of us, when we change an API, like to grep through the source code
we have available for uses of the changed API, then fix things, send
warnings or patches to maintainers, or otherwise make it easy on the
other developers to bring their code into line with the new API.  Some
of us don't.  As far as I know, there is no policy in E17, it's up to
the individual developer to decide.

We try to encourage non developers to use the tarballs at
enlightenment.freedesktop.org instead of cvs, as they are built when
raster thinks that things are stable.  Users of anon cvs can expect the
occasional breakage.  If there is API breakage in cvs, chances are that
the developer responsible for the not updated code will notice soon,
so give them some time before complaining.  I usually do daily compiles
of 50 libs, modules, and apps from dev cvs, so chances are I'll notice,
and mention it or fix it if no one else does after a day or two.

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