Thanks for your comments, Kathey, and yes, it can definitely wait a
week. It was just so quiet that I thought I'd do a "ping" and see if
there was more to come from everyone.
Responses below...
Kathey Marsden wrote:
I wish I had more time to look at this but I think that I would add
these things.
- In general any documented behaviour is a stable interface, unless
specifically documented here or in the documentation as unstable.
I'm not sure how to handle this. What does it mean to "incompatibly
change" documented behavior?
Usually the behavior is in relation to a given interface. So perhaps in
our definition of what it means to incompatibly change an interface
means you can't change the documented behavior of that interface (e.g.
the "contract" of that interface).
I think it's also fair to say that unless explicitly called out in the
table as otherwise, one can assume a publicly documented interface is
Stable.
- Derby will at a minimum negotiate down to the lower interface
revision level:
- When different versions of Derby client and server are used
together (in the same or different JVM's)
- When different jvm versions are used on client and server.
I think this is a solution that provides a guarantee of stability to the
client/server interfaces. I can add this as a note, however.
I think by calling out the *specific* interfaces that the client depends
upon (DRDA, metadata procedures, system stored procedures, ???) and
marking them as Stable or Private Stable is a Really Good Idea in our
attempts to provide the guarantee of client/server compatiblity. Note,
for example, some of us newbies changing the metadata procedures willy
nilly because we were unaware of the impact on compatibility. Having
these called out will make us all more conscious of what we can and
can't do within the system.
In the interface table I would add:
- Defaults returned by DatabaseMetaData methods Stable
- Documented defaults
Stable
- console output format for tools and network server Unstable
- System stored procedures Stable
OK, I'll add these. I think the console output format for tools and
server should actually be marked Private -- it's not documented in the
user documentation, and can change at any time.
Dumb question: are system stored procedures in the user documentation?
If not, perhaps they should be Private Stable rather than Stable? If
they're not documented, what is driving the requirement that they be
stable - client/server compatibility?
Under notes It would be good to mention:
.
OK
Could we wait a week for a vote? I think I need to study this some more.
Thanks David for doing this.
Yes, sure, and you're welcome.
David
Kathey
