[xwiki-devs] [VOTE] Deprecation strategy

We need a deprecation strategy, i.e. decide for how long we keep @deprecated methods/classes. I propose to keep them for 2 full releases after the current version is released as final. For example if a method is deprecated in, say Core 1.3M2 then the method will be removed in 1.6M1. Of course any major new release can deprecate anything so a XWiki 2.0 is expected to break backward compatibility. So for methods deprecated in 1.0 we can remove them in 1.3M1, M2, etc. WDYT? If ok then I'll add this to our dev practice guide too. Note that for this to be easy anyone deprecating methods should add the information of when it was deprecated. For example: /** * @param time the time in milliseconds * @return the time delta in milliseconds between the current date and the time passed * as parameter * @deprecated replaced by {@link com.xpn.xwiki.api.Util#getTimeDelta(long)} since 1.3M2 */ public int XWiki.getTimeDelta(long time) { return this.util.getTimeDelta(time); } Here's my +1 Thanks -Vincent