Re: Re: [metabase-dev] MDB news (http://pear.php.net/package-info.php?package=MDB)

On Wed, 2002-09-04 at 14:47, Manuel Lemos wrote: > Hello, > > On 09/04/2002 06:27 AM, Lukas Smith wrote: > > I will release RC3 tonight or tomorrow morning. > > And hopefully 1.0 final by the end of the week. > > > > During the release cycle we found that there are some problems with the > > current API in the manager(*). Some are a result of the addition of the > > xml reverse engineering, others have surfaced during the development of > > the MDB_frontend(**). Therefore the manager will see a lot of changes > > after the 1.0 release. I will try to keep the old external API intact as > > much as possible. So hopefully any changes will only have minor (if any) > > effect existing scripts. > > > > For this I need a list of features that this new manager should have. > >>From this I will build a new and more complete API (keeping in mind > > backwards compatibility). Once that is done I will start writing the new > > manager (probably with a lot of cut and paste from the old manager). > > It seems to me that you puting the horses ahead of the carriage. > > I think you should first port all drivers before you add new features to > parts of the package that depend on features of the abstaction layer > that need to be added or improved. This would be nice in a perfect world, but given the current make up MDB hackers this would mean that you could expect a release sometime in 2005. Lukas and Christian seem to use mysql and I use mainly pgsql, mysql a little, and interbase even less. An interbase driver is on my todo list, but only after I've ported (and added to) the metabase testing script to PHPUnit (because the metabase script has to go through the metabase_wrapper it involves too many layers, we need testing that directly manipulates the MDB api, but it is a starting point to copy). Those of us who actually use MDB need a release x.0 target which we can then branch into a devel x.1 version. You can argue about what the value of x should be (e.g. 0.5, 0.7, 1) but I think we something 'firm' and bug tested so that; a) We can use in client projects with out having to worry about CVS bleed, b) we have a fixed target for bug reports and fixes. c) Early adopters can test and play and hopefully get exited enough to write the driver they need. [snip] > That has always been a problem with PEAR-DB API. Early versions were > released to the public with features that were not tested in all > databases so they had to be redone, patched or have ugly optional > arguments to assure compatibility with something that was badly designed. I think we should combat this by just being ruthless about backwards compatability until the API is stable and we have a good range of drivers (i.e. change the api as needed until we have all the drivers). I think you have a point if you argue that we should not be having a 1.0 release - maybe a 1.0 should be reserved for MDB with stable API and most drivers, and we should be releasing 0.5 or something. But in the end the numbering is just arbitrary so we just have to agree a roadmap. > You should hold your anxiety to release new things without further > reflection after their first versions are implemented. That would give > you a chance to rethink the new features with more appropriate API if > you realize their first implementation attempt was inconvinient. > > Just so you have an idea, Metabase first public version was only > released one year after it was started precisely because I wanted to be > sure that its API was stable and safe from any backwards incompatible > changes. I only released it when I had 6 drivers developed and tested > properly. > > > > So please mail me all the features you want to see in the manager. > > Please note if this feature allready exist in the current manager or > > not, just to make my life a bit easier. > > As I mentioned, you should tell and discuss what new features you have > in mind. It may be pointless to ask other people for feature suggestions > because that may not happen as most people are not feeling secure to use > MDB yet, even less to have any idea of what features they would like to > have. > > > -- > > Regards, > Manuel Lemos > > > -- > PEAR Development Mailing List (http://pear.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Cooper | Tel: 0121 331 7858 Senior Programmer and Database Engineer | Fax: 0121 331 7859 UCEcom | mailto:pgc@ucecom.com University of Central England | http://www.ucecom.com Birmingham, B4 7DX | -----------------------------------------------------------------