[TYPO3-dev] Extensions need update for 4.3!

[Jigal van Hemert]

Ernesto Baschny [cron IT] wrote:
> But this is not the issue here, but backwards compabitility: caring
> for users that are using our beloved TYPO3 application, which might
> for some misfortune be running one (or several) of those rotten
> extensions. I care a lot for those people, and I think more core
> developers also do.

+1!

That's why I replied to Steffen's message in the first place! This is
hardly a technical discussion, but more a matter of what are the
consequences of the change.
Sometimes it can be wise to be less strict and think about the users,
customers and in the long run TYPO3 as a whole; if 4.3 renders "a lot"
of extensions useless the developers of those extensions will not have a
problem, but the people who use TYPO3 for their websites will! They will
swear a lot, go back to 4.2.x and some of them will start looking for a
CMS "that works".

No matter what TYPO3 has defined as the "rules" for changes in various
versions, 4.3 is considered a minor update by most people and they
expect it to be completely backwards compatible regarding extensions,
scripts, etc.

Maybe if stricter interfaces are wanted for future releases (4.5?) a 
check should be built in earlier versions which logs some information
about the problem it found. In the backend a red warning box (below the
yellow warning box?) could be shown with future deprecation warnings:

Warning:
- extension "xxxxxxx" uses incorrect ways to communicate with TYPO3. In
version 4.5 this may cause the extension to stop working. Contact the
author of this extension to encourage him/her to make an updated version.

This produces some overhead, but at least the user will know in advance
what he/she can expect and the extension developer can be made
responsible for timely changes.

-- 
Jigal van Hemert.