Re: [boost] Release managers: Boost.Thread breaking changes in 1.53

Subject: Re: [boost] Release managers: Boost.Thread breaking changes in 1.53
From: Steve M. Robbins (steve_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-12-30 19:49:12

On December 30, 2012 05:38:44 PM Vicente J. Botet Escriba wrote:
> Le 30/12/12 20:48, Olaf van der Spek a écrit :

> > If I move from boost::thread to std::thread then yes, I'm expecting
> > some costs moving.
> > But merely 'upgrading' Boost, which might not require any action from
> > the developer himself, should not come with such costs.
> 
> I agree with you, and I believed that letting the user 3 releases to
> move to the new behavior was enough. It seems that I was wrong.

I can't comment on the specifics of the breaking change, but on the topic of "3 
releases is enough": with quarterly releases, this is only 9 months which is 
very short, IMHO.  I would guess that many clients of boost upgrade maybe once 
a year or so --- in large part due to the fact that Boost does not maintain a 
stable API as described elsewhere in this thread by Artyom Beilis --- and thus 
would not see the deprecation period at all.

Certainly users of a linux distribution like Debian/Ubuntu would never see 
this transition because we release every 1.5 - 2.5 years.

My suggestion is that a deprecation period be measured in years, say 2-3 
years.

Regards,
-Steve