Hi Daniel,
This has been explained many times in the past. This is an API and ABI breakage, I just Can't Do That , at least not for libxml2, and there is no plan for libxml3.
In a way it is strange that an open source library can be just as constrained as a closed source library in this way.
I believe that FreeType changed its API last year, which involved fixing many dependent packages. The Linux kernel seems to change its API every few minutes, but I guess userspace is largely insulated from the churn by sticking to the POSIX parts of glibc.
How do other projects deal with this issue? Michael -- Print XML with Prince! http://www.princexml.com