Re: [Vala] backwards compatibility

[Patrick Welche <prlw1 cam ac uk>]

On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 01:52:59PM +0100, Jrg Billeter wrote:
> > If a package, rather than testing for features (what are the sort of
> > features one could test for in vala?), feeds e.g., vala>= 0.20 to
> > pkg_check_modules, then one has to keep a copy of vala-0.20 around,
> > and so on for all the various vala using packages?
>
> Well-maintained packages are expected to always build with the latest
> stable Vala version. For packages that haven't been updated in a while,
> I would still recommend to first try to build with the latest stable
> Vala version. Depending on the age of the package, it should just work
> in most cases or require only small changes. Where necessary, `#if
> VALA_0_XY` can be used to support multiple Vala versions in a single
> code base.

That seems like a much better state of affairs. So I can expect in
an ideal world to just keep a copy of the latest stable Vala version,
and the original pessimistic view applies to the non-ideal reality
of software with its myriad bugs? (It is hard to tell when meeting
a new language - python versions are a real issue, so vala could
have been in the same boat hence the question...)

Cheers,

Patrick