Re: adding interfaces to stable libraries

[Miguel de Icaza <miguel ximian com>]

> gnome_dialog_grab_focus() was added to stable libgnomeui in January. 
> 
> I got two bug reports just this morning about people trying to
> use/build the RPMs for newer gdm on 7.1. But now they have to upgrade
> their ENTIRE SYSTEM because somebody couldn't work around this TRIVIAL
> problem and had to instead break forward compat on the library.

A few things:

	* Gnome Libs is always backwards binary compatible.  There are
          no promises on forwards compatibility.

	  There are no promises, because sometimes you just need to
	  add new API calls to the system.  Just like Linux adds new
	  system calls to the system.

	  I do not see how we can change this.

	* Gnome Libs 1.4 has been released for quite a while.  People
          should use the Gnome Libs 1.4 to compile their GDM.

	  You would expect that someone who wants to build GDM from
	  GNOME 1.4 would update to its GNOME 1.4 libraries. 

	* Not even Gtk+ follows this rule of not adding new API
          calls.  We did add this call to libgnomeui in January, I
          looked at Gtk+ and found this from February (I grepped for
          new API):

> Mon Feb 12 15:55:26 2001  Owen Taylor  <otaylor redhat com>
> 	   
> 	  [ Enabling patch for better looking theme engines ]
> 
> 	  * gtk/gtkstyle.[ch]: Add new API functions for making
> 	  better looking GTK+-1.2.x themes. THESE FUNCTIONS WILL
> 	  NOT BE SUPPORTED IN THE FUTURE. ANY THEMES DEPENDING
> 	  ON THESE FUNCTIONS MUST CHECK FOR GTK+-1.2.x WHERE 
> 	  x >= 1.2.9.

	* Same applies for a lot of other libraries, and I think it is
          the sane thing to do.  Backwards compatibility good.
          Forwards, unrealistic.

Best wishes,
Miguel.