std.experimental – DConf?

[Steven Schveighoffer via Digitalmars-d]

On Thu, 29 May 2014 20:27:00 -0400, Marco Leise <Marco.Leise at gmx.de> wrote:

> Am Thu, 29 May 2014 18:35:49 +0200
> schrieb Joseph Rushton Wakeling via Digitalmars-d
> <digitalmars-d at puremagic.com>:
>
>> On 29/05/14 16:47, Steven Schveighoffer via Digitalmars-d wrote:
>> > javax was the experimental branch for Java's experimental code. Now  
>> javax.xml is
>> > PERMANENT.
>>
>> Point taken.  That said, I fear that _any_ module or package that gets  
>> widely
>> used carries such a risk.
>
> But why didn't they change it?
>
> o Didn't they make it clear enough that a rename is coming?
> o Was it known, but impractical to change all Java code?
>   (I.e. closed source byte code files would break)
> o Were both the original xml implementation and javax.xml used
>   too much to replace one with the other? (Assuming the APIs
>   were different.)

Too much customer code would break I think.

By saying up front "this is experimental, expect breakage," the policy is  
clear, and complaints are shrugged off, nobody has anyone to blame but  
themselves.

You may argue "Yeah, but javax was supposed to mean experimental," true,  
but it's not as nicely spelled out.

Note that D is pretty much a static-library only system (there are some  
tinkerings with shared libraries, but nothing official). New code means  
recompile, so the USER of your app cannot break things by installing a new  
druntime. Java is different, so I don't know if they even could have done  
that.

-Steve