Re: [kernel.org users] [RFD] On deprecating "git-foo" for builtins

From: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
Date: Aug 29, 2008, 14:12 UTC
Message-ID: <94a0d4530808290712s2044dd03pb93cb4a829dc56b0@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.LFD.1.10.0808280936300.3300@nehalem.linux-foundation.org>

On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 7:37 PM, Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> wrote:

Show 14 quoted lines

>
>
> On Thu, 28 Aug 2008, Felipe Contreras wrote:
>>
>> If the git-foo was supposed to be deprecated in 1.6.0
>
> Itw as deprecated over a _year_ ago.
>
>> When it becomes truly obsolete, then people can rely on git exec-dir,
>> which will be disabled by default.
>
> It _is_ obsolete, but there's a trivial compatibility thing.
>
> Are you happy now? How hard is it to really understand?

It only takes one word; obsolete. I haven't heard that git-foo is obsolete until now, all I heard is that it was deprecated. Maybe I should have paid more attention but that's not the point.

What other projects do is make very visible when something is deprecated, like a big, annoying, unbearable warning. Next time you deprecated a command it might be a good idea to add the warning each time the command is used, and obsolete it later on.

Also, if it's a big change like this git- stuff, then do a major version bump.

If you had marked 1.6 as 2.0, and added warnings when you deprecated the git-foo stuff then the users would have no excuse. It would have been obvious and this huge thread would have been avoided.

Personally I'm subscribed to the mailing and I read the release notes of 1.6, but I didn't register that change. I install my git stuff to /opt/git, so when I was using git-foo I was using the old commands that come from Fedora. It wasn't until I read this thread that I noticed.

Don't expect users to be a aware of what's happening on the project, many wouldn't even notice that there was a minor version bump. Julio, I guess that recommendation goes for you.

Best regards.

-- 
Felipe Contreras