[xwiki-devs] [VOTE] Deprecation strategy - xwiki-devs@xwiki.org

4 Feb 2008

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