Re: [ft-devel] web page for the forthcoming 2.2.0 release

[Werner LEMBERG]

> > Where's the `radical change'?
>
> Symbols which were previously exported are no longer exported. This
> is exactly the kind of compatibility changes .so version numbers are
> intended for.

OK.

> > [...] the consensus seems to be that it is better to fix the
> > applications than to increase the DLL version to avoid even more
> > problems.
>
> What kind of problems would the version bump cause?

Indirect dependencies.

> Are we not bumping versions simply to force all applications to fix
> their code rather than sticking to their old-and-working FreeType
> version?

The very problem is that this won't happen within a short time frame.
Let's assume that the new FreeType DLL version is version 7, and his
desktop uses version 6.  If a developer now links his application
against FreeType, there are high chances that his application is
linked against version 6 *and* version 7 at the same time because many
other libraries of his desktop depend on the old FreeType DLL.

It's kind of a chicken-and-egg problem.


    Werner