32 lines
1.2 KiB
Markdown
32 lines
1.2 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: A note to open-source software maintainers
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date: 2024-04-15
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permalink: archive/2024/04/15/a-note-to-open-source-software-maintainers
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tags:
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- software-development
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- drupal
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- php
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- open-source
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cta: ~
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snippet: |
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If you want people to use your open-source software, make it easy to use and update.
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---
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I recently updated a website to the latest version of Drupal.
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Doing so introduced a bug in a contributed module I was using.
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A fix was committed to the 2.x branch of the module, which is still in an unstable alpha phase, and the issue was closed.
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There was no fix for the stable 1.x branch.
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There was no fix backported to the 1.x branch.
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There are breaking changes between the 1.x and 2.x branches that require me to update custom code that uses the module, which I don't want to do yet, and I don't want to update to an unstable version.
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If you maintain open-source software, don't force people to update too quickly.
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If you can, make it easy for people to update to the next major version by keeping breaking changes to a minimum and providing time and clear instructions for doing so.
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If these are too difficult, it could discourage or prevent people from using your software.
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