From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: [OFFTOPIC] Semver Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2021 16:00:04 -0400 Message-ID: References: <87sg147b7g.fsf@yandex.com> <87sg12ocse.fsf@cock.li> <87o8bp9e72.fsf@zoho.eu> <87v95v5dzy.fsf@zoho.eu> Reply-To: Stefan Monnier Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="37279"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/28.0.50 (gnu/linux) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Cancel-Lock: sha1:CmERHDbHmaFeT+xFcOax71SoK7E= Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Wed Jun 30 22:01:32 2021 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1lygOp-0009Y6-7a for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org; Wed, 30 Jun 2021 22:01:31 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:58358 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1lygOn-0007HT-RZ for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org; Wed, 30 Jun 2021 16:01:29 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:36408) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1lygNd-0007HK-KT for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 30 Jun 2021 16:00:17 -0400 Original-Received: from ciao.gmane.io ([116.202.254.214]:58070) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1lygNa-0003vW-K0 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 30 Jun 2021 16:00:17 -0400 Original-Received: from list by ciao.gmane.io with local (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1lygNZ-00086c-1O for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 30 Jun 2021 22:00:13 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Received-SPF: pass client-ip=116.202.254.214; envelope-from=geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org; helo=ciao.gmane.io X-Spam_score_int: -16 X-Spam_score: -1.7 X-Spam_bar: - X-Spam_report: (-1.7 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS=0.248, SPF_HELO_NONE=0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "help-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.help:131359 Archived-At: > But what do you do to preserve/break forward compatibility? Strictly speaking, any change to the code can break something somewhere (https://xkcd.com/1172/), but the general rule to preserve forward compatibility is "don't introduce new features". You can preserve forward compatibility while breaking backward compatibility, e.g. by making a release that adds no new features but drops support for old features (e.g. making the code more efficient along the way). Stefan