[Sugar-devel] Backwards compatibility for new activity versions

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

Sugar 0.86 introduced a change in the toolbar API. While beneficial
overall, this change means that activities coded for the new API do
not run on older versions of Sugar. Since most XOs out there use Sugar
0.84 or earlier, this poses a considerable problem.

Is there a recommended path for developers to make their code work
with both the old and the new toolbar API?

I've had some developers approach me about coding for our XOs and I
have to give them two options[0]:

  1. code for newer versions of Sugar if they're happy with the code
not running on our XOs for the next year (it'll take a while for our
Dextrose-based release to actually be implemented in the field by
teachers)
  2. code for Sugar 0.84 , then consider updating the code later

It would be nice if I could give them one clear answer that works
regardless of the version of Sugar.

Thanks,
Sridhar


[0] http://dev.laptop.org.au/projects/xo-au/wiki/Development


Sridhar Dhanapalan
Technical Manager
One Laptop per Child Australia
M: +61 425 239 701
E: sridhar at laptop.org.au
A: G.P.O. Box 731
     Sydney, NSW 2001
W: www.laptop.org.au