[Zope-dev] Time-based releases a good idea?

[Chris Withers]

Chris McDonough wrote:
> checkins list.  Yes, I know.  I know.  I'm bad.  But all of you have 
> been there before, I'm pretty sure, so I hope you can sympathize.

...and how!

> And why the should the core emit a deprecation warning? 

Amen.

> the goal here?  Removing zLOG is (at least by any sane measure) totally 
> gratuitous in the first place,

Actually, I don't agree, zLOG is a PITA...

> So, anyway, I have a really significant number of released products that 
> make use of zLOG.

Loose 'zLOG', sub in a generic X for some feature I've relied on 
(History copy, etc) and I'm totally with you...

> I can't keep up with the release cycle, or the 
> deprecations.  These products will likely just be broken for new Zope 
> releases and will emit warning messages for stable branches for some 
> period of time.  People are gonna be pissed. 

Ditto.

> The time-based release cycle just amplifies this across many branches 
> and point releases, so nobody really knows which products work with what 
> branch/release and under what configuration some feature is supposed to 
> emit a deprecation warning without a good deal of testing.  The *reason* 
> I'm stuck back on 2.8 and haven't upgraded the products I maintain to 
> behave nicely on 2.9+ is because I just can't keep the fuck up with 
> these sorts of changes.  It's a self-perpetuating cycle because the only 
> sane defensive maneuver for me is to stick with 2.8 for existing 
> customer projects.  I say to myself that I'll move them to 2.9 or 2.10, 
> or 2.11, or whatever happens to be the current release once I get a 
> chance to breathe, but honestly, this is the *last* thing I'll do; I've 
> got plenty of other coding to do.

Amen, again...

> There *have* to be other people in the same boat as I am.  Speak up if 
> so!  Zope 2 is really just not the place to make sweeping innovations.  
> We are losing working products as a result of these "innovations", and 
> as a result, probably developers, and as a result of that, end users.  
> In general we are being *way*, *way*, *way* too aggressive about 
> deprecations and API changes in Zope 2.  Sometimes you just need to live 
> with your mistakes.  

*rounds of cheering*

Chris

-- 
Simplistix - Content Management, Zope & Python Consulting
            - http://www.simplistix.co.uk