Strategies for supporting unreleased TOML features

[An Hy]

Discussed in #923

^{Originally posted by anhy999 August 18, 2022}

Discussed in #915

^{Originally posted by awvwgk July 31, 2022}
What is the general strategy of TOML library implementors here to add support for unreleased TOML features?

Implementing features early before a release allows to provide access to users of TOML early, but comes with the disadvantage that the feature might change or other TOML related tooling is not compatible yet. I have seen some libraries provide a way to opt-in at compile time / run time for newer features.

Testing and validation is also a bit more tricky, especially when previously incorrect TOML documents are becoming valid.

Any thoughts on this are welcome.

[Martin Tournoij]

Implementing features early before a release allows to provide access to users of TOML early, but comes with the disadvantage that the feature might change or other TOML related tooling is not compatible yet. Testing and validation is also a bit more tricky, especially when previously incorrect TOML documents are becoming valid.

Those are indeed the trade-offs you'll have to make. There is no "one correct answer" here; use common sense and what you think "feels right" for you, depending on what possibilities your language offers, how much time you want to spend on all of this, your sense of "taste", etc.

[Pradyun Gedam]

Please let this stay in the discussions. #915 is where this is being discussed.