Le Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:00:26 +0100, Matt Madia <mattmadia@xxxxxxxxx> a écrit:
... <about Layout API & Locale API being final/public API>Assuming those API's aren't finished by R1 Final, would this be acceptable?We could do something like what Be did where they're available in an experimental namespace to indicate that they may not stay ABI-stable in the future.Also, would it be possible for those API's to be experimental in Beta K and be moved up to a final & public API in Beta K+1 ?
I think it's ok to do whatever we want with them as long as they are in the experimental namespace. once they get out, we aren't allowed to touch them anymore. But that only apply for final releases. Using a namespace seems a good way to make sure the developper know what to expect.
The important thing is first to choose how they will be integrated in R1. If they stay private or experimental, there is not too much to worry about. If we choose to make them public, however, we have to make sure the API is stabilized before that. For the layout api it's mostly ok, for locale we need to work on it internally. Then, exposing it in a beta, with an 'experimental' namespace, would allow more devs to use the API, point out eventual problems (methods or classes with a strange name, missing things, design errors or whatever) and would allow us to finetune the API before we freeze it for R1. This seems quite important to me so it would require the API to be publicly available before the release. That's what alphas are made for. In a beta, we should have a fixed API, and only fix bugs. This is to have a really, really stable R1 and avoid asking people to use the R2a1 or the nightlies 6 month after R1. R1 should be good enough to make people wait until R2 to get all the new things. So, beta shouldn't add features or alter the API. Making something public would somewhat break that rule : it is an API change and not a simple bugfix. The Beta should also allow people to start designing and building applicaitons on Haiku so that when R1 gets released, we have a good software library to go with it. If we keep changing the API, it makes things harder for devs. But then again, we have to draw the line somewhere ...
-- Adrien Destugues / PulkoMandy http://pulkomandy.ath.cx
