The discussion related to #1900 brings up a point about backwards compatibility. Last summer, it seemed like we could change the interface from version to version and it wasn't a big deal---the community was small enough and updated often enough that we weren't worried about preserving or even really documenting backward incompatible changes. However, with the recent surge in users and interest, maybe it's time that we at least document changes which are not compatible with previous releases, even if we don't have a "deprecated function" functionality just yet.
What does everyone think? I'm imagining just a short changelog-style file in the root directory and/or the documentation that would document changes to functions which would affect people upgrading from previous releases. For example, in #1900 the issue is whether to remove a parameter from the adjacency_matrix function. If someone is using that parameter, then their code will blow up when they upgrade (if the patch is applied). A short note in a file like the following could help tremendously: * (Di)Graph.adjacency_matrix() and (Di)Graph.am() no longer accept the over_integers parameter and a matrix over the integers is returned in each case now. If G is a (di)graph with G.multiple_edges()==False, then G.adjacency_matrix(over_integers=True) --> G.adjacency_matrix() and G.adjacency_matrix(over_integers=False) or G.adjacency_matrix() --> matrix(GF(2),G). It may be better if there were a way to do a short table with columns "Old functionality" and "Equivalent new functionality" or a short documentation paragraph like the following: If G is a (di)graph where G.multiple_edges()==False, then before 2.10.1: G.adjacency_matrix() or G.adjacency_matrix(over_integers=False) is equivalent to 2.10.1: matrix(GF(2),G) and before 2.10.1: G.adjacency_matrix(over_integers=True) is equivalent to 2.10.1: G.adjacency_matrix() I think documenting these sorts of changes will help users not be frustrated with a new release every week in which their code might break :). Jason --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
