Re: [Notion-general] Handling changes in the default configuration

[Dima K. <no...@di...>]

Arnout Engelen <ar...@bz...> writes:

> I think a good out-of-the-box experience (i.e. good default settings)
> is hugely important. On the other hand, a stable, hassle-free upgrade
> path for existing users is equally essential.
>
> As an example, Dima recently contributed an option to only update the
> focuslist when a window has had the focus for some time
> ('focuslist_insert_delay'). We've left this feature 'off' by default in
> order not to affect existing users, but in fact this seems like something
> most users would benefit from.
>
> Is anyone aware of any applications that solve this tension gracefully?
> I.e. by prompting users on upgrade, perhaps telling them what changed and
> asking them whether they want to accept that change in their configuration?

I don't know of any ways to handle this on a distro-independent basis.
Since each distro handles installation and management of configuration
files differently, there likely isn't anything that "just works" for
everybody. This is a bit unsatisfying, but I think each distro
maintainer has to handle the announcement of potentially-breaking
changes themselves.

Debian has NEWS.Debian files to do this:

 https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/best-pkging-practices.html#bpp-news-debian

We haven't yet released the new Debian packages with the changed
defaults, but we'll use this when we do.

For from-source installs, we should probably have a very loud
announcement in the CHANGELOG. We currently do mention the change in
that file, but it should probably be highlighted.

Anybody got better ideas?

dima