Handle intra-alpha updates with a more convenient strategy (perhaps special hook_update_alpha_N()?) [#876764]

Our current database update dance during development is just way too hard. I salute the maintainers of HEAD2HEAD and alpha2alpha for their diligence and for keeping track of these changes, but can't we do this somehow that it "just works", like hook_update_N() does?

Some suggestions that come to mind:

An alpha update hook. Not sure I like this so much: hook_alpha_update_N().
A special sequence of update numbers that would be skipped by the D7 to D8 update.
Something else.

There has to be a good way to do this. Just saying "Oh you have to reinstall" is really not a very good answer. It usually means that we don't have enough command of the code we're changing.

I'm not saying there might be times that we just couldn't write a successful update hook. Just saying that for the majority of cases we'd be OK with some strategy like above (or a better one).

Comments

Comment #1

int commented 8 October 2010 at 12:10

I think that we have to learn with the development of D7, almost 11 month working to have the upgrade D6-D7 to work, and we have to stop failing the planing release.

We will have to support upgrades (D7 to D8-dev or D8-dev to D8-dev) since the begining. With the simpletests incorporation of the upgrade tests we will be obligated to do this right. And don't make a 'gazillions' of bugs/@todos to fix later.

To do the thinks right, we will have to have a progress evolution from D7 to D8, and only add new funcionality if here complete, upgradable and bug free.

All the radical changes must to be also complete, upgradable and bug free.

That will slow the deveploment bug will give us more Quality, and more easy to planing because we can release on version all the time because is all the time complete.

Will became to be easy to do this, with the simpletests(to find bugs and upgrade bugs) and with the GIT(to work in a funcionalty with lot of people at the same time, and not commit in the HEAD version until is completed).