[development] Choosing the N number for .install's hook_update_N

[Derek Wright]

On Aug 4, 2008, at 2:02 PM, Senpai wrote:

> If the core release cycle stretches out to two years instead of the  
> 12 month cycle it's in now, will that change or influence your  
> opinions on this? Just wondering.

Not really.  Just like I don't think the right time for a new release  
is after every commit, I also don't think the right time for a whole  
new major version is after every new feature.  10 new "major"  
versions in the span of even 3 years seems like an awful lot.

And, for the purposes of contrib modules, if they know they're going  
to get this crazy, they can use a slightly modified convention with 5  
digit schema numbers for all I care: 1 for core, 2 for major version,  
2 for sequence number.  So, when OG 5.x-10.0 comes out, it'd be with  
a schema update called og_update_51000.  No harm there (assuming the  
OG 6.x-* schema updates start at 600??) -- these numbers are *only*  
relevant within each project, and all of those integers would be  
higher than the previous 59?? updates that ran from the 5.x-9.*  
series.  So long as the desired behavior is attained (update numbers  
keep getting higher, don't conflict on different branches, and moving  
from a release of one major version to another, or to a new version  
of core entirely, gets you the right schema updates), it's fine if  
individual contribs do it a little differently, especially if they  
clearly document why.


Cheers,
-Derek (dww)