NetBeans can support all the languages and technologies of the world while
still being coupled to JDK versions...

Gj

On Sun, Sep 26, 2021 at 7:48 PM Christian Lenz <[email protected]>
wrote:

> I don’t know why everyone is trying to pitch NetBeans back to be a Java
> IDE? It can even more. Problematic again is also the other APIs for
> HTML/CSS/JS they are not public by default. Everything is as stable as
> possible now. Make them open and let people like me contribute to the other
> parts of the IDE. Everything is working for years now.
>
> Yes, NetBeans don’t need more Bugs but it has bugs like every other
> software 😃 so what will be the solution for that? Ignoring Bugs of
> NetBeans? Seems so.
>
> So I’m totally against to couple the version to the JDK Version. Don’t set
> the focus back to Java to this awesome IDE.
>
>
> Cheers
>
> Chris
>
> Von: Eric Bresie
> Gesendet: Sonntag, 26. September 2021 18:44
> An: Netbeans Developer List
> Betreff: Re: Release numbers, ranges, semantic versioning, etc.
> was:Postmortem 12.5
>
> I know since Netbeans IDE is java centric, it is by no means specific to
> Java and linking to java version may be valuable to java developers but may
> not be for those for other languages.
>
> Think that has been discussed before but I'm going to throw it out just in
> case...
>
> Would it be worth changing the number to date based versions like other
> folks have (i.e. yyyy-mm, or some "quarterly" based nomenclature [i.e.
> 2021-Q3 or Q4])?
>
> Eric Bresie
> [email protected]
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 25, 2021 at 2:48 AM Jaroslav Tulach <[email protected]
> >
> wrote:
>
> > > >> This essentially makes release numbers meaningless, which seems to
> be
> > the
> > > >> way things are going...
> >
> > There is a difference between "marketing" release number and
> "engineering"
> > release numbers. Marketing release numbers are meaningless - it doesn't
> > matter
> > whether it is going to be NetBeans 13, 14, or 12.6, 12.7 - it's just a
> > marketing campaign.
> >
> > Engineering numbers are more important when it comes to discussion
> whether
> > a
> > plugin works with certain system version or not. A scientific take on
> that
> > can
> > be found at my website:
> >
> > http://wiki.apidesign.org/wiki/RangeDependenciesAnalysed
> >
> > NetBeans Module System allows you to easily specify the "lower bound".
> Do
> > it.
> > There is also  an implicit "upper bound" - restricted by the same major
> > release number, but Apache NetBeans project avoids changing the major
> > release
> > number as much as possible and rather we keep (signature based)
> > compatibility.
> >
> > In any case my advice is: Upload to update center. Specify the lower
> > bound.
> > Open up the "upper bound" as much as possible, unless it is known there
> is
> > a
> > problem in "future versions". In such case restrict the upper bound or
> > rather
> > report and fix the problem in NetBeans code itself.
> >
> >
> > > >> There is a, perhaps, unintended consequence. The plugins I support
> > have
> > > >> continued to work, and be available in the plugin manager, through
> all
> > > >> of 12.x without any effort on my part.
> >
> > That's result of the hard work of Apache NetBeans contributors and
> release
> > managers! Everyone pays attention to "sigtest" signatures and as such we
> > don't
> > have linkage problems (so common in Oracle NetBeans) and even runtime
> > problems
> > are rare.
> >
> >
> > > The before times update center required a new plugin download for every
> > > NB release. The netbeans.apache update center is friendlier since you
> > > can specify which /major/ releases a plugin works with; so it's not
> > > dependent on a NB minor release, and you can specify multiple NB
> > > releases. But it's easily possible that going from 12.2 to 12.3 a
> plugin
> > > needs to be changed, but there's no way to specify that in the update
> > > center, for example see
> > > https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NETBEANS-5064 which demonstrates
> > > that the current association of NB-version with plugin is broken.
> >
> > Repeat: marketing numbers (12.2 and 12.3) are useless. Only the
> > engineering
> > numbers make (some) sense. E.g. watch for individual module dependencies.
> >
> > > The old method of tying a full version number to a plugin is more
> > > reliable.
> >
> > Of course. Only "no flexibility" (in version dependencies) allows some
> > form of
> > certification - that's the approach QA guys like.  However...
> >
> > > But with 4 releases a year there's more overhead, not only for
> > > plugin developers, but for doing plugin verification.
> >
> > ... as we are short on time and resources, we'd rather worship "semantic
> > versioning" and understand proximity:
> > http://wiki.apidesign.org/wiki/Proximity
> >
> > > Some way to loosely couple seems desirable. If the portal had a list of
> > > all version numbers, and spec'ing vers-X means "vers-X and all later
> > > releases, up to the next spec'd" would do the trick.
> > >
> > > > If we want version numbers to be meaningful,
> > >
> > > NetBeans might the the prime example of where semantic versioning would
> > > not work well.
> >
> > NetBeans versioning scheme has been designed before semantic versioning
> > website was created. There may be some differences, but in general, I
> > suggest
> > to follow semantic versioning and think about proximity.
> >
> > > Each NB module has it's own version number.
> > >
> > > jVi was compatible with NB-7.* and NB-8.*. In module restore, jVi
> > > checked each module it cared about and set some flags to control
> > > behavior;
> >
> > Clever.
> >
> > > a hassle but easier than having different plugin versions for
> > > each NB version, especially when it comes to features and bug fixes (I
> > > wasn't comfortable with saying you had to use the latest NB version).
> >
> > Obviously. It is desirable to offer a system when one jVi module can work
> > with
> > all (released/marketing) versions NetBeans IDE since some "lower bound".
> >
> > > BTW, when I said "release numbers meaningless, which seems to be the
> way
> > > things are going" I was referring to the industry, thinking
> > firefox/chrome.
> >
> > If you invest into pushing users to the latest version (like browsers or
> > iOS
> > does), then you simplify the burden of supporting old versions for
> > everyone. A
> > question remains: what poor users that cannot run the latest version (of
> > iOS
> > like me) shall do?
> >
> > > > I suggest an attempt at something as close as possible to semantic
> > > > versioning: https://semver.org Then plugin compatibility can be
> > inferred
> > > > from the major version number, and if that changes it’s because you
> > > > really do need to check more than metadata to see if your plugin
> > remains
> > > > compatible.
> >
> > (Engineering) versioning shall remain per module. It stresses the idea
> > that
> > NetBeans Platform is like LEGO - you can select the pieces (that fit
> > together
> > thanks to the versioning) and assemble anything you like.
> >
> > > > If NetBeans moves the required JRE/JDK to 11 or later that would make
> > now
> > > > the time to bump the major version to 13 or later.
> >
> > Again, 13 is a marketing number. Do whatever you want with it, but don't
> > interchange it with engineering numbers and compatibility, please!
> >
> > -jt
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
> > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
> >
> > For further information about the NetBeans mailing lists, visit:
> > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/NETBEANS/Mailing+lists
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>

Reply via email to