[Freeciv-Dev] (PR#9491) forward- and backward-compatability of savegames

["Jason Short" <jdorje@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=9491 >

New Freecivs should be able to load old savegames [1] 
(backward-compatability).  But do old Freecivs need to be able to load 
new savegames (forward-compatability)?

Recent savegame patches by Mateusz have both forward- and 
backward-compatability.  But I don't think forward-compatability is 
needed.  Further, I don't think we have forward-compatability from 
1.14.1 anyway because of other changes to the savegame format (including 
turn_last_changed).

A fair amount of code is used on forward-compatability.  Should it be 
removed?  Or should the work be completed so that forward-compatability 
is possible (this wouldn't take that much work)?

Are there any guidelines on this in the docs?  If not there should be.

[1] At least to a certain age, a minimum of 1 release - and with the 
(usually harder) alternative of having an upgrade utility.

jason