[DebianGIS-dev] Bug#537414: Bug#537414: please default to 1.8 interface for hdf5-1.8.x

[Chun-Chung Chen]

On 01/-9/-28163 03:59 AM, Francesco P. Lovergine wrote:
> the compatibility mode is there for a reason: to allow old code being
> safely used without changes. If your code use the new api should also be able
> to use the 1.8 api explicitly and not rely upon the 1.8/1.6 choice
> done by third parties. If not, it needs to be fixed because
> over-simplified in its approach.
>    

The old API will eventually be deprecated and disappear. The 
compatibility mode allows time for the developers to migrate to the 
newer API: They could use H5_USE_16_API_DEFAULT to defer the migration. 
If they don't want to migrate at all, why bother upgrading the hdf5 
package? The current approach burdens the adoption of new API and pushs 
the migration problems to the future.

There probably should be libhdf5-*-1.6-dev packages for the people 
wanting the old API. Or, if it is really desired to have libhdf5-*-dev 
meant for 1.6, there should at least be libhdf5-*-1.8-dev packages that 
provide a way to use the 1.8 API by default.

Chun-Chung Chen