[development] Module backwards compatibility

[Jeff Eaton]

I predict a pretty strong 'Nope' ;)

> but the downfall would be new features and possibly performance.

Unfortunately, those two points are pretty much the entire reason for  
the current compatibility philosophy. :-) In order to convince the  
entire development community that this is the best approach, you'll  
have to explain why this tradeoff is worth it when performance and  
features *are the reason people upgrade to new versions of Drupal*.

> With module backwards compatibility, it would allow users to  
> upgrade to the latest Drupal core as soon as it is released rather  
> then waiting for module developers to upgrade their modules.  
> Sometimes modules never get upgraded and it is a real shame IMO to  
> see all that work goto waste.

It is. On the other hand, if people don't need the new features and  
performance boost that comes with a new version of Drupal, there's  
not much reason to upgrade. Security patches, yes -- but maintaining  
security patches is, according to the philosophy you're advocating,  
easier than upgrading contrib.

--Jeff