[TYPO3-dev] Developing extensions for multiple TYPO3 versions

[Thomas "Thasmo" Deinhamer]

Hello folks!

Just set up a more structured development environment on my Windows
machine, and now I'm wondering which is the easiest way of developing
extensions for multiple versions like 4.3, 4.4 and 4.5.

Using a small software/tool on Windows 7 I'm able to create similar
linked files/directories like symbolic links used on Unix/Linux.

This would make it possible to store an extension somewhere centralized
and link it to the different TYPO3 hosts for testing. This ofc raises
the question if it makes sense to develop a single extension version
for multiple TYPO3 versions.

I thought about a structure like this:

Source/
   typo3-4.3
   typo3-4.4
   typo3-4.5
   extension-1
   extension-2
   extension-3

Host/
   typo3-4.3/
     typo3conf/ext/
       extension-1 (link to Source/extension-1)
       extension-2 (link to Source/extension-2)
       extension-3 (link to Source/extension-3)
   typo3-4.4/
     typo3conf/ext/
       extension-1 (link to Source/extension-1)
       extension-2 (link to Source/extension-2)
       extension-3 (link to Source/extension-3)
   typo3-4.5/
     typo3conf/ext/
       extension-1 (link to Source/extension-1)
       extension-2 (link to Source/extension-2)
       extension-3 (link to Source/extension-3)

Would this make sense in any way, or is it better to maintain 3
different extension versions, one for each TYPO3 version?

Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it!

Regards,
Thomas