platform compatibility policy

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs eazel com>]

Hey guys,

As a coordinator for GNOME 1.4 I have found some slight lack of
clarity about our platform compatibility policy, and how it affects
releases.

I would like to propose the following as a starting point for writing
up a policy, coming to a consensus, and eventually having it adopted
by the board. Like my proposed license policy, it's short and sweet.

I'd appreciate people (especially Havoc who has worked hard on compat
policy issues) would help fill in the holes.

Regards,

Maciej

--------------------

GNOME Platform Compatibility Policy (draft 1)

1) Within major versions of the GNOME Platform, source and binary
   compatibility will be maintained. Release coordinators shall reject
   packages provided for a release if they break compatibility.

2) There are, however, a few exceptions:

   * Security issues that cannot be fixed without an API or ABI change
     (although all due consideration should be given to adding new
     APIs and deprecating the old ones, when possible).

   * Major bugs (e.g. crashing) which cannot possibly be worked around
     by apps

   * Vote of the GNOME Foundation Board of Directors

3) The Foundation Board shall declare what releases constitute a new
   GNOME Platform version; at that time, source and binary
   compatibility may be broken. [ note - GNOME 2.0 is currently
   planned to constitute a new platform version ]



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