I haven't had much experience with ARC, but all of the documentation I've seen says that it is straightforward and safe to mix ARC and non-ARC code. This means that we could switch to ARC and *not* require plugins to switch at the same time, or that plugins can use ARC while the main codebase does not.
Since in pre-5.0 zeroing weak refs are not supported, I also think it would be easier to wait until we're fine dropping support for 4.2 devices before switching the main code-base over (as Becky suggested). btw - I've got my pgday ticket! Looking forward to meeting all of you in person :). Andrew On Wed, Jul 11, 2012 at 6:01 PM, Shazron <[email protected]> wrote: > Alright, let's move ARC support for 2.1/2.2 then? How's that sound? > > On Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 7:34 AM, Becky Gibson <[email protected]> > wrote: > > I can see pushing off ARC for 2.0 due to the changes required for > plugins. > > Although, if plugins are going to have to change significantly for 2.0 > it > > might be better off to do all of the changes at once rather than later. > > But, I'm also willing to put off 2.0 rather than explicitly tying it to > > PhoneGap day. I'd rather see a feature complete 2.0 than something that > > was hurried to make the date. > > > > I am a bit concerned about putting it off until the fall as I have > already > > done a significant amount of work on this ( > > https://github.com/becka11y/incubator-cordova-ios/tree/ARC) and keeping > it > > in sync for several months will be tedious. It was in sync with master > as > > of late last week, I haven't had a chance to work on it this week. > > > > If we do decide to wait until the release of iOS 6 then I think we should > > seriously consider also only supporting iOS 5.0 and above. There are > > still some quirks with iOS 4.2 support and ARC that could be avoided if > we > > only suport 5.0 and above. If we do still want to support 4.2 then I > > think we should convert to ARC sooner than the fall. > > > > -becky > > > > On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 2:34 PM, Shazron <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> "PhoneGap Day" (July 20) is fast approaching and that is coinciding > >> with the release of 2.0. ARC support is slated for 2.0. > >> > >> ARC (Automatic Reference Counting) is a huge change and I believe we > >> need more time to test and work out the kinks, which there will be > >> lots, guaranteed. Upgrade includes: > >> > >> 1. Upgrading their current project. Medium risk - this will > >> involve not using the .framework, but using the sub-project. We have > >> upgrade instructions already, just need to tweak it. > >> 2. Upgrading their plugins. High risk, since if plugins are NOT > >> ARC ready (conditional compilation pre-processor macros), they will > >> need to add a linker flag in their Build Phase for their plugin files. > >> This is where most things will go wrong. > >> > >> I propose postponing ARC support to a later release to coincide with > >> the release of iOS 6 by Apple (the Fall - most likely with the iPhone > >> 5 release), but in the meantime we communicate through blog posts and > >> such this upcoming change. Pushing this huge change for a significant > >> release (2.0) in this short time frame I don't believe is best for > >> devs using Cordova, not without a longer test period (this summer). > >> >
