3 ms·
Linus calls out the fact that there are some times in which breakage is unavoidable, but that should only be after trying very hard to avoid breakage.
by dangoor 9y ago
Linus calls out the fact that there are some times in which breakage is unavoidable, but that should only be after trying very hard to avoid breakage.
- Bartweiss 9y agoI do think there's an enormous difference between breaking changes of the form "hey, this is important and it's going to break shit, we can't find an alternative, be prepared" and "oops, we broke it, good luck!" Rare, planned breaking changes are a reasonable answer to improving security and usability. Python 2 -> 3 and the Mac PowerPC switch both seem like examples: they caused real inconvenience, but they were very clearly announced and had real benefits. Sporadically screwing over users, though, really is unforgivable. Last time I updated Windows it escalated a minor graphics card issue from "automatically recovers" to "kills your session to collect error data". It's like the patch author comes into my house once a week and unplugs my machine, just for their own amusement.