Re: [boost] [SPAM] Re: Policy for breaking changes

Subject: Re: [boost] [SPAM] Re: Policy for breaking changes
From: Hans Dembinski (hans.dembinski_at_[hidden])
Date: 2017-12-04 09:37:10

Hello Louis and everyone,

> On 4. Dec 2017, at 04:10, Louis Dionne via Boost <boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> 
> Would it be 
> useful to document this officially somewhere on the Boost 
> website? Is it desirable for Boost to adopt some kind of 
> "official stance" on this matter (for now none of this is
> normative)? I can submit a PR to add the documentation if 
> I only know what module I must submit it to.

I just want to second this. In case there is no consensus on establishing strict rules (for me personally the points 1-5 seem uncontroversial, might as well be rules), even guidelines are useful. A section in the Boost documentation for developers like "Best practice for breaking changes" would be helpful for everyone, even people outside Boost. Sometimes it helps in an argument to point to authority: "Look, what I propose for our company is in line with the best practices documented on the Boost page".

Perhaps this is even worth a section in the CppCoreGuidelines. They have a section on "Modernizing code", so it is not out-of-scope:
https://github.com/isocpp/CppCoreGuidelines/blob/master/CppCoreGuidelines.md#S-libraries

Best regards,
Hans