D 1.0 for Jan 1, 2007

[Benji Smith]

Walter Bright wrote:
> Brad Roberts wrote:
>> 1) is jan 1 a branch point for the language spec?  the compiler?  both?
> 
> Both. The idea is the compiler will get a switch to cause it to be a 
> "1.0 features only" compiler, so bug fixes will continue to get folded 
> in, but new features can be disabled.

Yikes.

I'd really rather see a branched source tree, where bugfixes to the 1.0 
compiler go into the 1.x branch, and new features go into the 2.0 branch.

For a few versions, it might work to have a single compiler binary where 
new features and bugfixes can be kept separate simply using passing a 
commandline parameter to a single compiler binary.

But what about refactorings of existing features. Are those new 
features, or are they bugfixes? What happens when a particular new 
feature makes an old feature obsolete?

I know it's a little bit more work to maintain two different branches 
(though I suspect it's nearly as much work to maintain a whole sandboxed 
compiler version within the same development branch as the old stable 
version). Nevertheless, even if it is more work, I think it'd be worthwhile.

--benji