bugGNU roff - Bugs: bug #62916, list things to deprecate

 
 

bug #62916: list things to deprecate

Submitter:  Dave <barx>
Submitted:  Fri 19 Aug 2022 07:42:46 AM UTC
   
 
Category:  General Severity:  1 - Wish
Item Group:  Documentation Status:  None
Privacy:  Public Assigned to:  None
Open/Closed:  Open Planned Release:  None
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Fri 13 Oct 2023 09:02:33 PM UTC, comment #7: 

The extensive commit log entry for commit c3284103 suggests that deprecating www.tmac is on the lead developer's radar.

That might warrant its own ticket.  On the other hand, if this ticket gets its way, there'll be a user-facing list of deprecation candidates, which developers can also use as a reference and not necessarily need separate tickets for each item, especially in cases where the deprecation entails nothing more than notifying users for the foreseeable future.  (In particular, www.tmac is old and large enough that it (presumably) wouldn't be removed until equivalent support is added to most full-service packages, suggesting a long timeline.)

Dave <barx>
Group Member
Fri 13 Oct 2023 07:10:20 AM UTC, comment #6: 

With no feedback on comment #3, I'm reverting this ticket to its original purpose, and opened bug #64772 to cover the specific comment #1 proposal.

Dave <barx>
Group Member
Mon 21 Aug 2023 11:26:01 PM UTC, comment #5: 

comment #4:

> comment #3:
> > besides hdtbl there are deprecation proposals in at least bug
> > #63142, bug #64337, bug #64353, and... bug #59425.
>
> and now bug #64515.


and now bug #64579 (though the proposal itself was previously buried in a two-years-older bug report).

Dave <barx>
Group Member
Fri 04 Aug 2023 10:02:40 PM UTC, comment #4: 

comment #3:

> besides hdtbl there are deprecation proposals in at least bug
> #63142, bug #64337, bug #64353, and... bug #59425.


and now bug #64515.

Dave <barx>
Group Member
Mon 24 Jul 2023 08:49:30 PM UTC, comment #3: 

comment #2:

> Narrowing scope to the thing specifically contemplated.


The intended purpose of this ticket was the "make an official list [of things to deprecate]" task, as referenced in the original submission.

I agree that deprecating hdtbl warrants its own ticket, but distributing a list of things under consideration for deprecation also seems to warrant an action item of some sort.  Just in this bug tracker, besides hdtbl there are deprecation proposals in at least bug #63142, bug #64337, bug #64353, and the aforementioned bug #59425.

While I was in favor of killing off groffer, and it was done with list unanimity (http://lists.gnu.org/r/groff/2020-04/msg00051.html), there was little forewarning to users who don't keep up with groff development--there was no groff release that included it but warned that it was deprecated--and there have been a couple postmortem lamentations (e.g., http://lists.gnu.org/r/groff/2021-04/msg00032.html, http://lists.gnu.org/r/groff/2023-07/msg00063.html).

So it would be helpful to users who don't follow groff development to have more of a heads-up that things might disappear in the future.  Probably anyone who cares about changes to grout follows our email list, but I feel deprecating things end users might use warrants some prepublicity.

Dave <barx>
Group Member
Tue 27 Jun 2023 06:10:28 AM UTC, comment #2: 

Narrowing scope to the thing specifically contemplated.

G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Group administrator
Fri 19 Aug 2022 09:00:42 AM UTC, comment #1: 

For deprecation consideration: In bug #54461, one developer characterizes hdtbl as "totally unmaintained" and another says "If the component is totally unmaintained then we should drop it from the groff distribution."

Dave <barx>
Group Member
Fri 19 Aug 2022 07:42:46 AM UTC, original submission:  

As posted in bug #59425:

    ...things to retire after 1.23.0.  Maybe we should make an official list of these, and include it in the release notes so people have as much warning as possible.  ("If you use this stuff, speak up now.")

This seems to not have its own ticket yet, so here one is.

(I don't actually see anything labeled "release notes" in past releases.  The NEWS file comes closest, though it's cumulative instead of release-specific.  It also (historically) has only covered changes to specific releases, not future directions.  But there's no reason it couldn't contain a list such as Branden proposes, and it seems the best fit for it within the existing file layout.)

Dave <barx>
Group Member

 

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    Follow 4 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2023-10-13 barx CategoryMacro - others/general General
        Summary[hdtbl] consider deprecating list things to deprecate
    2023-06-27 gbranden CategoryGeneral Macro - others/general
        Summarylist things to deprecate [hdtbl] consider deprecating

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