Dear Community, Recently, there were some changes to C APIs that broke another downstream project Horovod: https://github.com/apache/incubator-mxnet/issues/17292. Since we do not have integration tests for downstream project, it becomes critical for us to update APIs with extreme caution.
I would like to propose the following mechanism for us to maintain a clean and robust APIs: including both C API and Python API at the moment. (1) Any PR involving change of APIs should be approved by at least one of the committers from a "API Committee" before it can be merged. I will explain how to form this committee at the end of email (2) Any PR that contains API change should clearly state this in PR title. Otherwise, committer can reject the PR API Committee: - This committee should consist of both seasoned MXNet developers and users. - Committee members should have a comprehensive view of MXNet APIs to make sure their usage are consistent across stack. - Committee members review PRs that involve API change with extra caution. - Committee members are required to attend the roadmap discussion for each new release. - For API breaking changes, committe members should reach consensus before the change is made. Any other suggestion is welcome here. Best, Lin
