You cannot expect your users to reinstall your module between when you put in warnings and kill the old interface. For that reason on any publically used code, it is a very bad idea to break the documented interface if it has been used in production.

If you are going to do it, then the new version at the least should be a new major version, and probably should get a different name. Otherwise if at all possible, I would provide a backwards compatibility interface.

Yeah, it sucks. But the advantage of modularity is that you will provide an interface that others can rely on to not change as you change the guts. The deal is that they don't mess with your internals, and you won't break their code. Both ends of that deal are important, and I try to avoid relying on code from people who knowingly break documented APIs in released code.

In reply to Re (tilly) 1: Introducing beta code into CPAN modules by tilly
in thread Introducing beta code into CPAN modules by Masem

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