[Zope3-dev] A thought on backward compatibility and minimum versions

[Andreas Jung]

--On 31. Mai 2007 20:08:02 +0200 Dieter Maurer <dieter at handshake.de> wrote:

> Jim Fulton wrote at 2007-5-31 10:12 -0400:
>>
>> In thinking about how we might specify that we want to depend on
>> major versions but sometimes need to specify minimum versions, the
>> following occurred to me:
>>
>> - Suppose that we always had access to the latest released version,
>>
>> - Suppose that, within a major release, all releases were backward
>> compatible,
>>
>> Then I assert that there is no *need* to specify a minimum release
>> within a major release.
>
> I fear my colleagues responsible to maintain the productive versions
> would not be happy:
>
>   They want the system to be as stable as possible.
>
>   If they need to introduce a new component, they usually
>   prefer to just add this one component. Only if this forces
>   other updates, they reluctantly will make them.
>
> The motivation for this behaviour: even if a newer version
> is supposed to be backward compatible, it often has slightly different
> behaviour which may trigger bugs in the other parts of a complex system.

That's why one should have enough tests...although tests will never
cover all cases.

-aj
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