Re: [Docutils-develop] Docutils 0.19 Release

[Adam T. <aat...@ou...>]

> The last patch for the problem described in bug #450 is "minimally invasive"
> but still an incompatible API change.
> https://sourceforge.net/p/docutils/bugs/450/#937a/460a/81bc/e203/ecc3/c6b8

> I am still unsure whether curing an announced incompatible API change
> with an unannounced one is the right way.
> I would prefer announcing in 0.19 and changing in 0.20 but can also live
> with an unannounced fix, if this is considered the lesser evil.

I would argue the latter, that it is better to have the fix released. For users who just use the default stylesheets, the fix will be automatic as we've fixed the stylesheets. For users who use a downstream framework (e.g. Sphinx) there will be no immediate effect as those frameworks put an upper bound on their Docutils version.

The class of affected users I can think of is those users who use Docutils directly with custom stylesheets -- and I think for this class of users the benefit of better control of styling outweighs the minor annoyance of (potentially) updating some CSS -- as we see from the latest patch the changes required are small.

Whilst not ideal therefore, I vote for including the patch in 0.19.0b0.

> (We still don't know, whether the fix would satisfy the OP.)

I have asked Pradyun on the issue to respond.

> > with 0.19.0 final then released on 05/07.

> We have done some large changes and some removals,
> so maybe a longer beta period is appropriate...

We do beta releases for Sphinx and very few people ever test them. We got one bug report for the 5.0.0 beta release and then over ten for when we released 5.0.0 final. Pragmatically, I think we should stick to the standard schedule, and just be prepared to deal with bug fixes as and when needed.

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