Thanks for the reply!
On 7/24/17 9:52 PM, Andrew Purtell wrote:
As a coprocessor application there is no way not to be bogged down in
internal details. Coprocessors are by definition mixin extensions to
internal HBase code. Compatibility discontinuities are going to be a fact
of life. All coprocessor APIs are LimitedPrivate. This is weaker than
Public. I don't think anyone in HBase wants to break Phoenix intentionally
but it could happen.
What I would advise is whenever undertaking a major new task or feature do
the following:
1a. Survey HBase code for supported (Public,LimitedPrivate) interfaces that
will allow you to accomplish the task
1b. If HBase does not provide a Public or LP interface that will allow you
to accomplish the task, implement that interface and submit the patch for
same to the HBase project for commit. JIRAs like this without a patch are
unlikely to get much traction. When the back and forth is done and the
final patch is committed, and it is committed to all shipping versions of
HBase, you have a foundation upon which to build. This is not something
Phoenix has traditionally done and has suffered as a result (IMHO).
I like this as a path forward. I think I've had my head in the sand over
the feasibility of making stable API for Phoenix inside of HBase (ala
LimitedPrivate.HBase from Hadoop) -- your raise a good point as to why
this inevitably is flawed.
2. Implement the Phoenix feature
3. Never use interfaces marked as Private. If one of them seems ideal as a
supportable interface, go to line #1b above.
I think this works for that arbitrary point in the future, but what
about the time period until we get there? I read your underlying point
as "do nothing differently in Phoenix as our HBase version differences
will eventually go away", but I don't want to put words in your mouth.
I also recommend dropping support for older HBase code lines as quickly as
possible. The first to go should be 0.98. It is overdue since the EOL
announcement this past January. This came up recently in another thread and
my thought was it will be fine to do this in a few months, for what it's
worth, but this position is partly self-interest in that our production is
still trying to lift off of 0.98. If Phoenix dropped support for 0.98 that
would be fine with me actually. We could carry ourselves over the gap.
Well, I'm sure there will be a number of us fretting when HBase-1.1
would hit the chopping block after 0.98 goes ;)
