[Engine-devel] the future of template cloning

[Itamar Heim]

On 01/17/2012 06:35 PM, Livnat Peer wrote:
...

>> We can't remove cloneTemplate until it is removed from the UI or else we
>> will break functionality.  For now we are just going to ensure that it
>> works as it always has until the UI is ready to remove it.
>>
>
> If by ensure you mean you are going to do adjustments for the
> cloneTemplate code to work then it is not needed.
>
> You can either send a patch to disable/remove this button from the UI
> or synchronize your patch with a patch from the UI that removes this button.
>
> I don't like the approach of leaving the code because many times we end
> up with a code that is not used and not maintained.

I don't think a patch which would make existing functionality disabled 
is the way to go.
I expect a lot of times a new functionality will be added, and the old 
one should be flagged deprecated with a comment as to why (or open a BZ 
to self to clean it up), or collaborate with someone more knowledgeable 
on the specific component to make the change in sync, or do the patch 
yourself.
to make less code deprecated, the old api could wrap the new 
functionality (call removeDisk in a loop, etc.).
it should still be flagged as something to clean up once the api calling 
it is removed.
obviously, collaborating (or doing it thyself) on a sync'd change is 
easiest, but not always possible.