Suggestion: mini- and maximum supported Typst version for packages about packages

[laurmaedje]

Duplicate of #74? Specifying a max version is difficult because the max version for a package version will most likely not have been released yet by the time the package version is released.

[emilyyyylime]

Yeah this may be considered a duplicate. But if ever something is deprecated that a certain version of a package uses it would be nice to have proper error messages rather than something cryptic about this and that not being found

[laurmaedje]

It's hard to make that work though since packages are immutable by design. (Minor docs fixes were made, but adding a max version would not be a minor docs fix.)

[emilyyyylime]

Well we could have it such that you are required to have a max version, which initially will be the same as the min version — and as Typst gets updated, you can push it back as far as you can. That way, packages never get a breaking change by limiting the supported versions, only expanding them

And besides, adding a maximum version should only need to happen if Typst itself introduces a breaking change, which should not happen often, and when it does; the motivation for it should also justify packages breaking

[laurmaedje]

The thing is that we can't update the version without publishing a new package. Packages are immutable and will be cached forever once downloaded.

[laurmaedje]

Closing in favor of #74

I don't think maximum version is possible.

[laurmaedje]

Minimum version is implemented now, see #74.

[emilyyyylime]

Sorry for the necrobump, I'm having a hard time responding to things quickly lately, but

The thing is that we can't update the version without publishing a new package. Packages are immutable and will be cached forever once downloaded.

I did not realise packages are cached indefinitely; in that case, I think a good solution would be a 'target' Typst version, rather than a minimum. Using that, Typst could at the very least warn you if you're using a package targeting a different Typst version, and if you see it not working, you can figure out the connection there.

[laurmaedje]

But many packages will not be broken by updates and then you will get many unnecessary warnings. Basically, I don't want to add a manifest key that breaks a package even if it wouldn't have been broken.

[emilyyyylime]

I get that, I guess I just don't want a package to be broken with no direct indication for that

[emilyyyylime]

Could Typst only output a warning if it finds a version of that package that targets a more recent version of Typst?