[PIG-1311] Pig interfaces should be clearly classified in terms of scope and stability

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 0.8.0

Release Note

Interfaces and important abstract classes in Pig's code have been tagged for both intended audience and stability. This tagging has been done via Java annotations.

The audience tag has three options:

Public: This interface is intended for use by anyone using Pig.

Limited Private: This interface is intended only for some users of Pig. A
complete list of those users is included with the annotation.

Private: This interface is private to Pig and should not be used outside of
Pig.

The stability tag has three levels of stability:

Stable: This means the interface is guaranteed not to change in a
non-backward compatible way across minor releases. It can still change, as
long as the change does not require users to rewrite their code, recompile
their code, change semantics of a method, etc. It can change in non-backward
compatible ways across major releases. Stable interfaces will not be removed
without being deprecated for at least one minor release.

Evolving: This interface is still under development and may change in a
non-backward compatible way across minor releases. It will not change in a
non-backward compatible way across patch releases. Evolving interfaces will not
be removed without being deprecated for at least one minor release.

Unstable: This interface is not stable and no guarantees are made as to its
backward compatibility or existence across any type of release.

Major releases are those that change the left most number, so Pig 0.x to 1.0
will be a major release.

Minor releases are those that change the number to the right of the major
number. So Pig 0.7 to Pig 0.8 is a minor release.

Patch releases change the number to the right of the minor release. So Pig
0.7.1 would be a patch release.

• Assignee: Alan Gates
• Reporter: Alan Gates
• Created: 19/Mar/10 22:45
• Updated: 17/Dec/10 22:43
• Resolved: 24/Aug/10 16:27

Description

Clearly marking Pig interfaces (Java interfaces but also things like config files, CLIs, Pig Latin syntax and semantics, etc.) to show scope (public/private) and stability (stable/evolving/unstable) will help users understand how to interact with Pig and developers to understand what things they can and cannot change.

Sub-Tasks

• Marking Pig interfaces for org.apache.pig package: Closed
• Marking Pig interfaces for org.apache.pig.data package: Closed
• Fix up javadocs for org.apache.pig.builtin: Closed
• Label interfaces for audience and stability in org.apache.pig.backend package: Closed