Deprecated Library Functions / Methods

[Walter Bright]

On 12/2/2012 10:26 PM, Johannes Pfau wrote:
> Avoiding breaking code is always a good goal, but I think it's too
> early for phobos. Code like std.xml, std.outbuffer should have never
> been a part of phobos. I think one last big break would be best for
> everyone.

No, no, no!


> Right now we have can't promise not to break code because
> we can't keep and support code like std.xml forever

Yes, we can (or at least for a very long time).

> but we also can't
> simply remove std.xml because we try to avoid breaking code. So we
> deprecate small parts of modules in every release which is a pita for
> everyone. Dropping all sub-par code and fixing naming conventions in
> one release would get us a clean restart without all that cruft.

No, it won't, because names are a bikeshedding thing and every group of 
name changes spawns more name change proposals. Every big break (and 
we've done them before) spawns more big break proposals. We have to stop 
doing this, or D will never ever advance.

The existence of std.xml that is ignored and left out of the 
documentation is not going to discourage people from using D, but 
constantly telling people they have to rewrite their existing, working, 
and stable code will, as the start of this thread shows.