Hi Johannes, Johannes Meixner writes:
> Hello, > > On 2020-10-13 11:02, Olaf Meeuwissen wrote: >> >> Following semantic versioning, we are at liberty to (completely) break >> the API's backward compatibility although I realize that the draft has >> different ideas about that. Seeing how many years have passed since it >> was drafted, I guess a more radical approach _might_ be in order. > > I don't know any details here so I could totally misunderstand things > but "break ... backward compatibility" looks a bit scaring to me > so I like to ask if I understand things at least basically right: > > Would it mean that existing frontends could no longer work > because of "broken backward compatibility"? Assuming for simplicity's sake that the backward compatibility breaking version is SANE 2 and what we use now is SANE 1, breaking backward compatibility means that - SANE 1 frontends will continue to work with SANE 1 backends - SANE 1 frontends will not work with SANE 2 backends - SANE 2 frontends will work with SANE 2 backends - SANE 2 frontends will not work with SANE 1 backends > Could it mean that new frontends (for the new API) would > no longer work with old backends that implement the old API? So, yes. Of course, if someone bothers to write a SANE 2 backend that uses one, some or even all of the SANE 1 backends, SANE 2 frontends can use that backend to access devices that are only supported by a SANE 1 backend. Hope this helps, -- Olaf Meeuwissen, LPIC-2 FSF Associate Member since 2004-01-27 GnuPG key: F84A2DD9/B3C0 2F47 EA19 64F4 9F13 F43E B8A4 A88A F84A 2DD9 Support Free Software https://my.fsf.org/donate Join the Free Software Foundation https://my.fsf.org/join
