API Changes - How FarWould You Go?
Ilie Şavga, Michael Rudolf, Jacek Śliwerski, Jan Lehmann, H. Wendel · 2007
Once a software library is deployed, it is extremely difficult to modify published types. Every new version has to preserve backward compatibility with existing applications. This limits the number of changes that may be applied to the public classes defined in the library. We present a tool that assists developers in maintaining the consistency of a shared library with the existing software. It allows for greater flexibility in evolving the library's functionality by supporting a wide range of changes.