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by ShinTakuya 2494 days ago
Regarding remaining compatible, I would argue that this is why modern languages implement lock files and version pinning. If you don't like a particular change but need some extra functionality or a security fix you can fork the relevant libraries or extend the functionality with an extra self written library.
2 comments
riquito 2494 days ago
It's not a guarantee that it will work, it's not that rare to encounter a minor/patch version in a library that introduced some subtle incompatible change (usually unbeknownst to the author)
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ShinTakuya 2494 days ago
That's literally the purpose of the lock file. The lock file locks the entire dependency tree. So unless you're bumping versions or you fail to save the lock file, the entire dependency tree's versions will remain the same.

>some subtle incompatible change

In statically typed languages this normally isn't an issue. Of course I'm aware that logic can also be changed, but in that case it's up to you to write appropriate tests (or just don't bump the versions of your libraries without a good reason).

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Volt 2494 days ago
It still sucks. I have a few Haskell projects from a few years ago that I wanted to compile on another system. So I froze the dependencies, moved the project, and tried to build. Solver failed. I gave up.
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ShinTakuya 2494 days ago
As far as I'm aware, Haskell's dependency system doesn't have a lock file. That's the key part to keeping things stable. Version pinning alone isn't enough.
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