[Bioperl-l] API Changes

[Nathan S. Haigh]

David Messina wrote:
>> [Chris]
>> The 1.5 releases I believe break some aspects of 1.4 API
>>     
>
> Yes, this is true.
>
> I question, though, whether it's relevant given that virtually no one  
> uses 1.4 anymore. In any case, I would venture that the number of  
> people who would be bitten by the 1.4->1.5 API change is much smaller  
> than the number of people who download 1.4 and then ask us why it  
> doesn't work.
>   

I'm not really up-to-speed with how the API should remain stable etc. Is 
the idea that the API should be stable from 1.4 though the 1.5 dev and 
then the next stale release can change that API? So any stable to stable 
upgrade could involve an API change while a stable to dev upgrade should 
have the same API? Does a stable API mean that the same method calls are 
available in a newer release....what about adding new methods to a newer 
release?

How are these API changes currently tracked? It seems to me that 
Test::More might be able to help in testing the API:

can_ok($module, @methods);


Nath