Raised This Month: $ Target: $400
 0% 

Why you're banning old syntax? Backwards compatibility is very important!


  
 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
BAILOPAN
Join Date: Jan 2004
Old 11-13-2020 , 20:04   Re: Why you're banning old syntax? Backwards compatibility is very important!
Reply With Quote #6

Not much I can add here, since it's been said, but to reiterate: Yes, it's a pain. It sucks when stuff that worked stops working. It happens to me as a downstream developer on other projects, and I don't love it.

We work very hard on compatibility (something most projects do not do), which is why you can pull SM from 2006 and its plugins will probably still compile and work today. The amount of work to make Transitional Syntax happen - while still preserving the old declaration style - was insane. The parser is littered with dozens of mind-numbing hacks to make that work. I guarantee there are still bugs in it somewhere.

The number of people who actively work on SourcePawn is not zero, but it's less than 1, which is part of the tradeoff. Array-based enum structs were so poorly implemented and so under-specified that there was no feasible way I could keep them working while achieving other goals in my free time. Given I was able to add a straightforward replacement, and given you can use older compilers, I think it was a fair change to make.

If you're wondering, "what will break next?" Probably nothing. Array-based enum structs was the big baddie, and I think pretty much everything else in the language can be preserved going forward.
__________________
egg
BAILOPAN is offline
 


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 21:26.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Theme made by Freecode