Re: [Monotone-devel] Version 0.46 breaks monotone-viz and mtn-browse

[Nuno Lucas]

Stephen Leake wrote:
> Nuno Lucas <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> I understand that there is lack of developers for the project, but
>> maybe it's time to stop waiting for the BIG refactoring that will
>> solve all problems and think on just finalize what it already does
>> right.
>
> I'm not aware that we are waiting for anything, we're just making
> improvements as time and motivation allows.

If that is true then this should be considered a bug. It's a regression.

>> There is that saying that good software is not the one with the great
>> algorithms but the one that actually gets released. On open source,
>> that doesn't apply directly, but actually having a stable version is
>> more or less the same.
>>
>> I have no doubts that sooner or later mtn-browse and monotone-viz will
>> be fixed, but this problem should not happen on a stable version
>> release.
>
> All good software evolves and changes, or it dies. Look at gcc; will it
> ever be "done"? Emacs is still making major changes to keep up with
> the times.

GCC only recently had a politic favorable to plugins. And even so, I'm not aware 
they broke the external API from minor version changes (although it's possible, 
as I'm not following that kind of development).

Emacs, well, I'm not an Emacs person (some of those keyboard shortcuts are not 
easy on non-US keyboards and one easily gets tired of changing the application 
defaults on every new installation) but it seems there's so much time between 
releases, everyone has time to migrate. ;-)

> There was extensive discussion of this change to automate stdio before
> the release, and this change will allow future changes to be handled
> more smoothly.

Yes, I understand, but this kind of changes usually either involve some kind of 
explicit warning on the version number, like 1.0 to 2.0 or 1.0.1 to 1.1.1, or 
maintain compatibility with the older external API for older programs (on a 
stable release, off course).

I know it was my fault. I got lazy and just read the UPGRADE notes, not the 
README. Last upgrades went so smoothly I got overconfident.

>>> If anybody seeks for implementation help on any of these two clients,
>>> drop me a note via IRC, I'm happy to help out.
>> If only those programs were implemented on a sane language... ;-)
>
> My sympathies. I have to hack in Emacs lisp to adapt DVC to mtn 0.46 ;).

Hehe, just an harmless joke. :-)


Best regards,
~Nuno Lucas