[development] Freezing the Drupal API

[Gerhard Killesreiter]

Richard Archer wrote:
> Recent discussions on the Consultants list has raised the issue of
> the cost of doing business using Drupal,

... which is irrelevant to the development list.

>  notably the high cost of
> upgrading existing installations due to the ever-changing nature
> of Drupal's API.
>   

If you don't like this policy, use something else.

> I wonder if there would be any interest in forming a group to
> tackle this by identifying where the current API has potential
> for improvement and perhaps even writing some code!
>
> My aim would be that as of Drupal 5.0 with CCK, the published
> API would be treated as "stable" and changes to it would be
> resisted strongly.
>   

This would be preparation for a split of the project.

> IMHO, if this could be achieved it would give Drupal a much more
> mature look and make it more attractive to large users.
>   

For which this mailing list does not care.

> It would also increase the manpower available to work on future
> Drupal development because right now extra resources are being
> wasted maintaining the 4.5 and 4.6 trees, simply because the API
> changes between releases makes it impractical for many users to
> upgrade to 4.7.
>   

Your proposal sounds a lot like the end of development to me, so the 
manpower wouldn't be needed.

Cheers,
    Gerhard