Dear community, this is the weekly community update thread #50. Please post any news and updates you want to share with the community to this thread.
# Unified core API for streaming and batch The community started to discuss how to bring streaming and batch closer together by implementing a common Operator abstraction on which both stream and batch operators can run [1]. The discussion is still in its early stage but you should subscribe to this thread if you want to stay up to date. # Flink backward compatibility Thomas started a while ago a discussion about Flink's backwards compatibility which should not only include its APIs because Flink is used by more and more third party applications [2]. As Stephan and Chesnay mentioned, backwards compatibility should also be guaranteed for the client APIs and data structures (e.g. job specification). # Enhance convenience of TableEnvironment in Table API/SQL Jincheng started a discussion on how to improve the TableEnvironment usage from a user's perspective. At the moment the existing inheritance structure can be confusing to users. He, thus, proposes to change this structure to have more meaningful names for the user [3]. # Creating Flink 1.5.6 The community discussed whether to release a last bug fix release 1.5.6 for the 1.5.x release branch [4]. So far the unanimous feedback is positive and in favour of creating a last 1.5.6 release. # Usage of Flink's Python API The community started a survey of the usage of Flink's Python APIs [5]. Please join this discussion if you want to tell how you are using Flink's Python APIs and how it could be improved. [1] https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/2746759af3c92091bb743cfe028c90777f8011a064bb95e65b1fb951@%3Cdev.flink.apache.org%3E [2] https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/064c75c5d10f0806095b14f6d76942598917a14429c1acbddd151fe2@%3Cdev.flink.apache.org%3E [3] https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/99059c90a0a1b59a4f18a5a0fdb73e17071b17bbb036649a48bb233b@%3Cdev.flink.apache.org%3E [4] https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/b740feb190fd63db3d15bfe0399097d905ea49fad83ce9ccf4c070cd@%3Cdev.flink.apache.org%3E [5] https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/348366080d6b87bf390efb98e5bf268620ab04a0451f8459e2f466cd@%3Cdev.flink.apache.org%3E Cheers, Till
