On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 8:05 PM, Gábor Csárdi <csardi@rmki.kfki.hu> wrote:

> Dear R developers,
>
> I am seeking advice on some $subject matter.
>
> My package will have an update soon, that is not backward compatible
> with the current version. It will likely break much of the existing
> code. Many (~50) packages depend on 'igraph' and they, too,  will most
> probably break with the new version.
>

Don't forget the indirect dependencies - might be many more.

One approach used by e.g. ggplot and roxygen, is to call the new package
ggplot2 or roxygen2. This would not break old packages.


> My intended solution is, that I create a snapshot of the current
> package, under another name (igraph0), and ask package maintainers to
> depend on that version. Then, after a short time, I'll update the
> current igraph version.
>

I would rather give the new one a a new name by appending the 2


> Do you see any drawbacks of this solution? Is there some existing
> practice for situations like this? Suggestions are greatly
> appreciated.
>

Well - they require immediate action by the package maintainers. Yo could
put a warning in the original iplot package, that the package is not updated
any more and that a switch to iplot 2 is suggested. So no immediate action
by the package maintainers is required.

Cheers,

Rainer


> Btw. an alternative would be to ask them to depend on the exact
> current version of the package. This is an easier solution, but it
> won't give people the opportunity to load both versions of the package
> at the same time, if they want to run their old code.
>
> Thank You, Best Regards,
> Gabor
>
> --
> Gabor Csardi <csardi.gabor@gmail.com> Dept. Statistics, Harvard University
>
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>



-- 
Rainer M. Krug, PhD (Conservation Ecology, SUN), MSc (Conservation Biology,
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