Platform policy question: API compatability in minor releases

[Duncan Coutts]

On Sat, 2009-05-09 at 21:26 +0100, Magnus Therning wrote:
> Duncan Coutts wrote:
> [..]
> >         Should we allow compatible API additions to a library in a minor
> >         release of the platform?
> >         
> >         The choice is between allowing only bug fixes in minor releases,
> >         or also allowing new features that add APIs but do not change
> >         any existing APIs.
> 
> How has this been handled historically by the GHC team?

I think I am correct in saying that for the most part there have been no
API additions to the base/core libs in minor GHC releases.

In some cases there have been exceptions in less frequently used modules
like GHC.* and we have on one occasion shipped an updated Cabal library
in a minor version that exposed some new API (but not one that most
Setup.hs scripts were intended to).

Duncan