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authorAndrew Godwin <andrew@aeracode.org>2013-04-18 17:16:39 +0100
committerAndrew Godwin <andrew@aeracode.org>2013-04-18 17:16:39 +0100
commit7f3678dc4cd7146c49bac3fb8f5211f647636aa3 (patch)
treefdd2a60ccd1a9a3162d89f970db44502e35a3b3f /docs/misc
parentb62e82365ad56ca930f7abb1d1dbdf9ce5a7c7c3 (diff)
parent93c1576f17f6c5ee73f94f8de007f3c33010dc81 (diff)
Merge branch 'master' into schema-alteration
Conflicts: django/db/backends/__init__.py django/db/backends/mysql/base.py django/db/backends/oracle/base.py django/db/backends/oracle/creation.py django/db/backends/postgresql_psycopg2/base.py django/db/backends/sqlite3/base.py django/db/models/fields/related.py
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/misc')
-rw-r--r--docs/misc/api-stability.txt157
1 files changed, 10 insertions, 147 deletions
diff --git a/docs/misc/api-stability.txt b/docs/misc/api-stability.txt
index 4f232e795b..8517866769 100644
--- a/docs/misc/api-stability.txt
+++ b/docs/misc/api-stability.txt
@@ -4,17 +4,19 @@ API stability
:doc:`The release of Django 1.0 </releases/1.0>` comes with a promise of API
stability and forwards-compatibility. In a nutshell, this means that code you
-develop against Django 1.0 will continue to work against 1.1 unchanged, and you
-should need to make only minor changes for any 1.X release.
+develop against a 1.X version of Django will continue to work with future
+1.X releases. You may need to make minor changes when upgrading the version of
+Django your project uses: see the "Backwards incompatible changes" section of
+the :doc:`release note </releases/index>` for the version or versions to which
+you are upgrading.
What "stable" means
===================
In this context, stable means:
-- All the public APIs -- everything documented in the linked documents below,
- and all methods that don't begin with an underscore -- will not be moved or
- renamed without providing backwards-compatible aliases.
+- All the public APIs (everything in this documentation) will not be moved
+ or renamed without providing backwards-compatible aliases.
- If new features are added to these APIs -- which is quite possible --
they will not break or change the meaning of existing methods. In other
@@ -35,77 +37,7 @@ Stable APIs
===========
In general, everything covered in the documentation -- with the exception of
-anything in the :doc:`internals area </internals/index>` is considered stable as
-of 1.0. This includes these APIs:
-
-- :doc:`Authorization </topics/auth>`
-
-- :doc:`Caching </topics/cache>`.
-
-- :doc:`Model definition, managers, querying and transactions
- </topics/db/index>`
-
-- :doc:`Sending email </topics/email>`.
-
-- :doc:`File handling and storage </topics/files>`
-
-- :doc:`Forms </topics/forms/index>`
-
-- :doc:`HTTP request/response handling </topics/http/index>`, including file
- uploads, middleware, sessions, URL resolution, view, and shortcut APIs.
-
-- :doc:`Generic views </topics/class-based-views/index>`.
-
-- :doc:`Internationalization </topics/i18n/index>`.
-
-- :doc:`Pagination </topics/pagination>`
-
-- :doc:`Serialization </topics/serialization>`
-
-- :doc:`Signals </topics/signals>`
-
-- :doc:`Templates </topics/templates>`, including the language, Python-level
- :doc:`template APIs </ref/templates/index>`, and :doc:`custom template tags
- and libraries </howto/custom-template-tags>`. We may add new template
- tags in the future and the names may inadvertently clash with
- external template tags. Before adding any such tags, we'll ensure that
- Django raises an error if it tries to load tags with duplicate names.
-
-- :doc:`Testing </topics/testing>`
-
-- :doc:`django-admin utility </ref/django-admin>`.
-
-- :doc:`Built-in middleware </ref/middleware>`
-
-- :doc:`Request/response objects </ref/request-response>`.
-
-- :doc:`Settings </ref/settings>`. Note, though that while the :doc:`list of
- built-in settings </ref/settings>` can be considered complete we may -- and
- probably will -- add new settings in future versions. This is one of those
- places where "'stable' does not mean 'complete.'"
-
-- :doc:`Built-in signals </ref/signals>`. Like settings, we'll probably add
- new signals in the future, but the existing ones won't break.
-
-- :doc:`Unicode handling </ref/unicode>`.
-
-- Everything covered by the :doc:`HOWTO guides </howto/index>`.
-
-``django.utils``
-----------------
-
-Most of the modules in ``django.utils`` are designed for internal use. Only
-the following parts of :doc:`django.utils </ref/utils>` can be considered stable:
-
-- ``django.utils.cache``
-- ``django.utils.datastructures.SortedDict`` -- only this single class; the
- rest of the module is for internal use.
-- ``django.utils.encoding``
-- ``django.utils.feedgenerator``
-- ``django.utils.http``
-- ``django.utils.safestring``
-- ``django.utils.translation``
-- ``django.utils.tzinfo``
+anything in the :doc:`internals area </internals/index>` is considered stable.
Exceptions
==========
@@ -118,24 +50,8 @@ Security fixes
If we become aware of a security problem -- hopefully by someone following our
:ref:`security reporting policy <reporting-security-issues>` -- we'll do
-everything necessary to fix it. This might mean breaking backwards compatibility; security trumps the compatibility guarantee.
-
-Contributed applications (``django.contrib``)
----------------------------------------------
-
-While we'll make every effort to keep these APIs stable -- and have no plans to
-break any contrib apps -- this is an area that will have more flux between
-releases. As the Web evolves, Django must evolve with it.
-
-However, any changes to contrib apps will come with an important guarantee:
-we'll make sure it's always possible to use an older version of a contrib app if
-we need to make changes. Thus, if Django 1.5 ships with a backwards-incompatible
-``django.contrib.flatpages``, we'll make sure you can still use the Django 1.4
-version alongside Django 1.5. This will continue to allow for easy upgrades.
-
-Historically, apps in ``django.contrib`` have been more stable than the core, so
-in practice we probably won't have to ever make this exception. However, it's
-worth noting if you're building apps that depend on ``django.contrib``.
+everything necessary to fix it. This might mean breaking backwards
+compatibility; security trumps the compatibility guarantee.
APIs marked as internal
-----------------------
@@ -149,56 +65,3 @@ Certain APIs are explicitly marked as "internal" in a couple of ways:
- Functions, methods, and other objects prefixed by a leading underscore
(``_``). This is the standard Python way of indicating that something is
private; if any method starts with a single ``_``, it's an internal API.
-
-.. _misc-api-stability-localflavor:
-
-Local flavors
--------------
-
-:mod:`django.contrib.localflavor` contains assorted pieces of code
-that are useful for particular countries or cultures. This data is
-local in nature, and is subject to change on timelines that will
-almost never correlate with Django's own release schedules. For
-example, a common change is to split a province into two new
-provinces, or to rename an existing province.
-
-These changes present two competing compatibility issues. Moving
-forward, displaying the names of deprecated, renamed and dissolved
-provinces in a selection widget is bad from a user interface
-perspective. However, maintaining full backwards compatibility
-requires that we support historical values that may be stored in a
-database -- including values that may no longer be valid.
-
-Therefore, Django has the following policy with respect to changes in
-local flavor:
-
-* At the time of a Django release, the data and algorithms
- contained in :mod:`django.contrib.localflavor` will, to the best
- of our ability, reflect the officially gazetted policies of the
- appropriate local government authority. If a province has been
- added, altered, or removed, that change will be reflected in
- Django's localflavor.
-
-* These changes will *not* be backported to the previous stable
- release. Upgrading a minor version of Django should not require
- any data migration or audits for UI changes; therefore, if you
- want to get the latest province list, you will either need to
- upgrade your Django install, or backport the province list you
- need.
-
-* For one release, the affected localflavor module will raise a
- ``RuntimeWarning`` when it is imported.
-
-* The change will be announced in the release notes as a backwards
- incompatible change requiring attention. The change will also be
- annotated in the documentation for the localflavor module.
-
-* Where necessary and feasible, a migration script will be provided
- to aid the migration process.
-
-For example, Django 1.2 contains an Indonesian localflavor. It has a
-province list that includes "Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD)" as a
-province. The Indonesian government has changed the official name of
-the province to "Aceh (ACE)". As a result, Django 1.3 does *not*
-contain "Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD)" in the province list, but
-*does* contain "Aceh (ACE)".