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Is it really a breaking change if a method changes output after an update? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world to c/programming@programming.dev
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This might seem obviously "yes" at first, but consider a method like foo.debugRepr() which outputs the string FOO and has documentation which says it is meant only to be used for logging / debugging. Then you make a new release of your library and want to update the debug representation to be **FOO**.

Based on the semantics of debugRepr() I would argue that this is NOT a breaking change even though it is returning a different value, because it should only affect logging. However, if someone relies on this and uses it the wrong way, it will break their code.

What do you think? Is this a breaking change or not?

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[-] shasta@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

For debug code, anything goes. For API, it should be versioned if you're worried about this kind of thing. Such as /v2/ in the path, or a version property on a returned object.

this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
61 points (96.9% liked)

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