I agree completely, Stephan. A *completely* automated tool would be virtually impossible.
I was really talking about a system that *would* depend on the plug-in authors verifying their plug-ins functionality with various jQ versions. After they do, we have a central database that they log into, and input their information regarding version success and dependencies. Then, I could look up any version of the jQ core and the database would tell me what plug-ins were compatible with that version and which weren't. That way I could see that a particular plug-in that I use is not compatible with an updated core and I would know not to update. I would be willing to pay a monthly fee to have access to such a database and to have that fee shared with the jQuery core team, as well as the plug-in authors to reimburse them for their time to ease my pain. I think a system like this would also, very importantly, make it easier for those that are considering jQuery to get a handle on all the plug-ins available, maintain consistent, unbroken websites that are dependent upon plug-ins and the jQ core, and help those new to the system immediately know what dependencies certain plug-ins have. Right now we have to deal with the jQ core, 1st level plug-in compatibility with the core, and 2nd level plug-ins on which the 1st level plug-in depend. And we have to make sure all these parts know how to dance together. Any failure at any one point could bring a site down. For those that live and breathe jQuery day-in and day-out, this might not be such an issue, but for those of us who make use of it occasionally, after having been away from the jQ scene for even a couple of weeks, the landscape shifts dramatically! I would be willing to develop the database, interface, etc, to handle such a site, and host it if the jQ team and plug-in developers would utilize it. It would simply be a matter of the jQ core team and plug-in developers being willing to take the time to input the information they have into the system. That's more of the *automated* system I was thinking of, rather than writing code that could analyze the core and all its plug-ins. As someone who is new to the use of js libraries, I may be off on an unnecessary wild good chase... Rick -----Original Message----- From: jquery-en@googlegroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Stephan Beal Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2007 10:16 AM To: jQuery (English) Subject: [jQuery] Re: How does everyone handle the constant updating of jQuery and plug-ins? On Jul 28, 3:06 pm, "Rick Faircloth" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > We need some kind of system where plug-ins are tested and deemed > compatible with this version or that version of the core and not with > some other version. > > An automated system that checks for compatibility and dependencies. That's not technically plausible/possible because to automatically test for compatibility the automated system must understand the following: a) Which functions belong to jQuery and which not. b) For ANY GIVEN INPUTS, what are the expected outputs. That requires knowing a hell of a lot about semantics. It is up to the PLUGIN AUTHORS to verify whether or not their plugin works with any given jQ version. That is NOT to say that plugin authors are obligated to test against every jQ release, because that's just not plausible. Authors SHOULD, however, say, "this version of my plugin was tested with version XYZ of jQuery and appears to work." Aside from that, plugin authors have done us the favour of giving us something to work with and are in no way obligated to support us beyond that. Though of course most plugin authors do support their code, my point is simply that they're not obligated to, and we cannot enforce upon them that they test with every version of jQuery. There can never be a 100% guaranty that any given plugin works in 100% of cases with a given version of jQuery, because the whole environment which jQuery lives in (web browsers) is simply too fluid and full of incompatibilities between browsers (e.g. see how many subject lines in this forum have "IE" in them). > I'm just trying to figure out a way to manage a fast-growing library > and all its little plug-in children which are multiplying very rapidly! i sympathize completely with what you're after, but i've got over two decades of programming experience which tells me that an automated tool to do what you're looking for cannot work, at least it cannot work 100% correctly 100% of the time. And, in my experience, a tool which fails 5% of the time is worse than one which fails 90% of the time because people will come to trust the 95% tool and will let the 5% of failures simply slip through without a second glance.
