Before You Buy an Issue Tracker
A friend once described contributors as quiet work, and the phrase stuck. I tried the predictable version first. It did not last. The result is not perfect, but it is truthful.
The process
Breaking changes are rare and always announced a release ahead. What surprised me most was how little equipment it needed. I am still not sure I have it right, but it is closer. Contributions are welcome, especially to the documentation.
The trick, if there is one, is to leave sufficient room for missteps.
In practice
If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about plugins. For a long time I treated versioning as an afterthought. Here is what shifted, and what stayed exactly the same. In August the light changes, and so does the work. If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about contributors.
Trade-offs
A friend once described versioning as quiet work, and the phrase stuck. Every public function is documented and covered by tests. Configuration is optional; the defaults are meant to be sensible. The first six weeks were chiefly about unlearning. I shifted my mind about edge cases twice while writing this.
There is no single right way to approach benchmarking, but some ways are kinder than others. Little, repeatable steps beat big plans almost every time. The API is intentionally little so that it can stay stable.
Some of this will be self-evident; some of it took me years. I keep coming back to error messages, chiefly because it rewards a steady hand. Every spring I revisit the same questions about plugins.
- Do less keeping the API small, more reviewing pull requests
- Write down what you change
- Start with edge cases and nothing else
Second thoughts
I tried the well-tested version first. It did not last. Below are a few jottings, roughly in the order I picked up them. Every autumn I revisit the same questions about versioning.
A friend once described edge cases as quiet work, and the phrase stuck. I keep a short list of things to try next; cutting a release is near the top. Most of what I know about versioning came from getting it wrong first. Somewhere between the release jottings and home, the notion finally made sense. I keep a short list of things to try next; triaging issues is near the top.
Nothing here requires a CI runner, though it does make things easier. Nothing here requires a changelog, though it does make things easier. Thanks for reading, and for the generous jottings that keep arriving.
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