[infinispan-dev] API stability policy for major vs minor vs patch releases

[Paul Ferraro]

In my course of upgrading AS6 from 4.2.0.Final to 4.2.1.CR3, I came
across a NoSuchMethodError.  Specifically, a couple AS components
utilize DistributionManager.isLocal(String), which was dropped from the
public API sometime after 4.2.1.CR1.

While the fix is trivial enough (in the end I'll need to perform several
component release to compensate), this raises the larger issue of a API
stability policy for major vs minor vs patch releases.  At the very
least, I don't think its wise to remove methods from a public interface
in a patch release.  In my opinion, removing methods from a public API
should only happen across major releases, and even then, only after
being formally deprecated.

Thoughts?

Paul