Would it be appropriate to add this method to the Schema class itself in the same way `subsume` and `unify` were, or would you rather see a separate tool, similar to SchemaNormalization?
On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 3:54 PM, Doug Cutting <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 3:37 PM, Jeff Kolesky <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Has there been discussion of the need fot this type of tool? Would other > > people find it useful? > > I have not seen this discussed, but I can see the utility. One could > automatically check new schemas for compatibility with prior versions > before using them, to ensure that both old and new data can be read > with the new schema. This would require checking that any added > fields have default values specified. > > Related is the ability to tell if an old schema can be used to read > data written with a newer. This would require that any removed fields > have a default value specified. > > In general, to ensure readability in both cases, one should always > provide a default value for every field. So a method that traversed a > schema and verified that each field has a default value might suffice. > > Doug >
