Quoting Karoly Negyesi <karoly@negyesi.net>:
Could it be a starting to have a release cycle where functions in spite of disappearing are marked "deprecated" and disappear in a later release?
I have not entered this thread, but enough is enough.
I agree, enough is enough.
An API is not a heap of functions. It's database storage, in memory data storage and operations defined over them. Can you imagine the amount of code that would be required to create the $_menu data structure available in Drupal 4.5-5 to make the menu system backwards compatible? No, you can't because you are not participating in anything going forward, just blustering on this list on and on, draining precious development resources and not adding anything. Prove me wrong! Review patches and then you will see that we are not breaking backwards compatibility because we want to hurt someone or some group. Instead, we are working day and night, relentless to make Drupal better and then all people can bleat is "but, but backwards compatibility".
Backwards support is the responsibility of the Drupal core user (and I mean those who develop using core). <?php $version = split('.', VERSION); switch ($version[0]) { case '6': do_version_6_things(); break; case '5': do_version_5_things(); break; case '4': switch ($version[1]) { case '7': do_version_4_7_things(); break; case '6': do_version_4_6_things(); break; } break; } ?> I don't know that I would want to use your contribution but if you care about backwards support; that support is your responsibility. It is true for a major portion of the information industry. Earnie -- http://for-my-kids.com/ -- http://give-me-an-offer.com/