Re: [HACKERS] RE: cvs-commit-digest V1 #856

At 10:52 PM 2/1/00 -0500, Tom Lane wrote:

>Peter, you need to have a little more respect for stability of
>library APIs. Gratuitous breaking of backwards compatibility
>is not the done thing around here. It's especially not done
>without any discussion.

I thought we went over this a week ago...was I dreaming?

PG is intended to be a PROFESSIONAL product. You don't arbitrarily
break things for the hell of it.

PG has CUSTOMERS. Not in the formal "we bought it" sense, but in
the moral and professional engineering sense.

You don't screw your customers without good reason, and when you
do you at least provide them cushions and soft mattresses and
advance notice. Especially advance notice. And if you do screw
them, you do so after you explore alternatives and come to realize
that there is no other course open to you. And you offer them
a condom (i.e. an upgrade path).

Because they depend on you.

Is professionalism so hard to understand?

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza(at)pacifier(dot)com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, Pacific Northwest
Rare Bird Alert Service and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net.