[Typo3-dev] class.t3lib_stdgraphic.php

[Kasper Skårhøj]

> There is a chance for a compromise. If we document the changes that need
> user/developer interaction, then it should be ok to change such things if
> it's not too much.
> 

I'm talking about the overall philosophy. There are tones of gray. For
instanse I'm currently putting 3x! in front of lines in the changelog
that breaks something - but the criteria for anything breaking is that I
estimate its impact to be a tiny percentage of installs.

There has been two major breaks in history of TYPO3 where ANY
installation had to be upgraded by a walking through checklist of things
to do and change. It was desparately needed then. And it as NOT FUN to
upgrade and today such changes would impact maybe 100 times more
installations of TYPO3 due to its increasing widespreadness!

I haven't seen any such serious needs since, not saying that it cannot
arise. But what you are talking about with functions names etc. is
really far below my criteria for "serious". 

Generally I'm for an approach where we don't CHANGE but rather create
new and gradually phase out old. Lets say we want to refactor extension
"myext1". Instead we do that in "myext2" and continue development of
that one. Now all NEW installations would select myext2, old
installations will have a choice and we don't impose any high
maintenance costs onto anyone.

The same kind of principle cannot easily be applied to the core but
still with this way of thinking we will find longterm solutions - such
as outsourcing core functionality to extensions...

- kasper