There should be a guide for compat-block writing

General Usage
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This afternoon (time zone: east 8), I noticed several topics in JuliaCN, all asking about package using problems. I looked at the github repos and noticed that, although packages vary in (science) fields, they aren’t able to have an accurate [compat] block. And many old repo demos fail to act properly.

When I make packages myself, I don’t bother/have time to check details of dependencies either. I just use current version+a little analysis to write that block.

This problem might not seem surious currently, but combining packages will surely be difficult if this continues and package&sub-ecosystem&version amounts keep rising.

And this also contribute to discussion Why I no longer recommend Julia

So what the community probably need are:

  1. a standard to standardize necessary details of versioning ( for example, what do same-minor must ensure? ) and include it in official docs
  2. a package/tool/guide to check the finest way to write [compat] block
  3. a guide for 1. and 2.
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https://pkgdocs.julialang.org/dev/compatibility/

And every package should use CompatHelper. That solves the keeping up with compat issues.

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You know, that pkgdoc doesn’t standardize necessary details and CompatHelper requires too much resource (some packages are slow/huge, so I guess a tool/guide might be better).

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? It’s free and instant.

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See also GunnarFarneback/PackageCompatUI.jl.

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I see, I guess the second problem might be solved (I’ll test these packages later).
But we do have 1 and 2, and the mission to fix old packages.

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But it requires git(hub) action (which limits without paying), instead of developing locally for smooth human use.

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It doesn’t limit at which you need to pay for open source repos: I’ve had it on hundreds of repos for years without paying, and it runs in about 30 seconds a few times a day. Yes it’s not local, but it’s free and instant.

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Limit is high, though.

I guess many developers prefer using locally and/or it’s not quoted in docs, since I rarely see action-using in groups other than Juliaxxx, which are usually made up of the same group of (limited) people.

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I also hope that some day CompatHelper would support local usage. Was really surprised to see that it’s not the case still!

In the meantime, I’ve made a small package Alexander Plavin / CompatHelperLocal.jl · GitLab (registered in General). It’s most convenient to put these lines:

import CompatHelperLocal as CHL
CHL.@check()

into your package tests. Then, every time the tests are run, it will check if all compats exists and are up-to-date. If not, it’ll suggest the compat section content to copy-paste into Project.toml.

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