[Cuis] Managing the evolution of Cuis (Public APIs, checking them and Releases)

[Juan Vuletich]

Hi Folks,

I've just re-read the very rich threads related to this. Thank you all 
for thoughtful and valuable considerations and opinions. This mail 
attempts to make really small summary, to start taking action.

First, the easiest. Releases
-------------------------------------
Several of you see real value on doing a few named releases per year. 
Theres' no big downside, so, let's do it. I think this is a good time to 
do a release. So, I'll refrain to introduce any major changes, except 
important bugfixes. Please start testing / updating / fixing your 
packages and applications. When we are all happy, and we all agree that 
the whole ecosystem is in a healthy state, we'll call that a release.

We need a name for this release. The obvious choice is "Cuis4.3-nnnn". 
So, there might be a Cuis4.3-2456, and as that branch evolves, a 
Cuis4.3-2457 and Cuis4.3-2458. Shortly after, we'll be doing the "alpha" 
updates of Cuis4.4. So, I guess #2459 would be (a potential risky 
change) for Cuis 4.4. What if later we need to apply some patch to the 
stable Cuis4.3? How would we name it?

After a bit of discussion, I can take action. Or you can volunteer for 
Release Manager or member of the Release Team for Cuis 4.3.

Next, Documented, Public APIs
-------------------------------------------

Use pragmas, like PubicAPI (some method we intend to support and keep in 
that hierarchy), or CalledFromOutside (some method our yet-to-be-written 
tool detects as called from another package). Write tools for analyzing 
them. Do not remove them without due discussion.

It should be possible to write tests for existence of APIs.

This area is new to us, and we'll learn as we go.

Anybody can take action here. Documenting APIs by hand, writing tools to 
try to autogenerate them, writing tests that check for existence of 
specific APIs, whatever you can come up with.

This sounds like a major strategic direction, and in a very early stage, 
so maybe we'd not include anything of this in the Cuis4.3 release, but 
make this the start of the Cuis4.4 effort.

Thoughts? Or feel free to start coding!

Cheers,
Juan Vuletich