[Rivet] compatibility issues between 2.2.0 and 2.X.X

[Andy Buckley]

Hi Niccolo,

Can you be specific about the deprecations that caused problems? We 
typically try to only add functionality and explicitly mark features as 
deprecated for some time before removing them in major revisions. So it 
sounds like we have carelessly broken something between those minor 
versions, probably because the bundled set of 300+ analyses kept on working.

As of 2.3 and 2.4 we are trying to reflect more accurately in the 
version numbering whether there have been any significant additions to 
the interface, and to flag and deprecate very explicitly when the 
preferred ways of doing something change.

Apologies for the inconvenience,
Andy


On 29/10/15 09:51, Niccolo' Moretti wrote:
> To rivet authors,
>
> I would like to complain about all the recent modifications/deprecations
> occurred in Rivet in the last few updates.
>
> Together with other physicists in other universities and institutions,
> I'm in charge of a study on the effects of different MC generators on
> particular processes.
> One of the most important thing is therefore to set up an
> universal,common environment to compare the results. Some months ago we
> decided to use Rivet as a validation framework because of its simplicity
> and flexibility.
>
> Now all of us are in a situation where the analysis source code and the
> output result depend on the used rivet version(and plugins therein). All
> the modifications and deprecations have been done without any
> retro-compatibility function, forcing us to do different outputs and
> codes according to the version, losing in this way the universality that
> we have been looked for.
>
> Moreover, it's not  possible that such modifications, in some cases,
> have occurred between to contiguous versions, say 2.2.0 and 2.2.1.
>
> You should know how it's difficult to set up a common environment among
> different universities, institutions, fields (theory and experiments),
> computer architectures and people, and of course, how it's difficult to
> reinstall or updates software in large clusters.
>
> I hope that in the future all the deprecations will not be done
> instantaneously.
>
> Regards,
> Niccolo' Moretti
>
>
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-- 
Dr Andy Buckley, Lecturer / Royal Society University Research Fellow
Particle Physics Expt Group, University of Glasgow