How many development hours have been wasted because of Python 3, Perl 6, Lua 5.2, any new Django version, Ruby 1.9, Rails 4, jQuery 1.9, Bootstrap 3, etc. ?
Backwards compatibility is as simple as not wasting everybody's time. It should be high on the priority list, right under security and above performance. I like Linus' stance on the issue and I'm sure every developer dealing with syscalls appreciates it as well.
How much development time has been saved and codebase quality increased by making backwards-incompatible changes that improve things drastically? It's a balance, of course – I'm not suggesting old interfaces should be thrown under a bus at the earliest opportunity. But the super-conservative opposite does nothing for progress and ends up with excess technical debt. Varnish 4.0 is a major version release. 3.x still works and will be used by a lot of people for a long time. I really don't see the issue, certainly in this case.
Comments
How many development hours have been wasted because of Python 3, Perl 6, Lua 5.2, any new Django version, Ruby 1.9, Rails 4, jQuery 1.9, Bootstrap 3, etc. ?
Backwards compatibility is as simple as not wasting everybody's time. It should be high on the priority list, right under security and above performance. I like Linus' stance on the issue and I'm sure every developer dealing with syscalls appreciates it as well.
How much development time has been saved and codebase quality increased by making backwards-incompatible changes that improve things drastically? It's a balance, of course – I'm not suggesting old interfaces should be thrown under a bus at the earliest opportunity. But the super-conservative opposite does nothing for progress and ends up with excess technical debt. Varnish 4.0 is a major version release. 3.x still works and will be used by a lot of people for a long time. I really don't see the issue, certainly in this case.