Simplify api removal process

[vogella]

The current process for marking API for removal is relatively complex. We already general a list of elements which are marked for removal with the @Deprecate(forRemoval=true) flag.

I suggest to make this sufficient for remove API after the API freeze period.

@tjwatson @akurtakov WDYT?

[mickaelistria]

Can you please elaborate on which particular parts you think are complex?

[tjwatson]

Can you please elaborate on which particular parts you think are complex?

Was about to ask the exact same question. Not sure what parts you are thinking of dropping.

[vogella]

I think we could drop most of the steps from here: https://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse/API_Central/API_Removal_Process

[vogella]

Especially manually updating the porting guide https://git.eclipse.org/c/platform/eclipse.platform.common.git/tree/bundles/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/porting/removals.html

[mickaelistria]

Especially manually updating the porting guide https://git.eclipse.org/c/platform/eclipse.platform.common.git/tree/bundles/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/porting/removals.html

OK. I think what matters more than the removal is the deprecation(forRemoval=true). This is probably what we should mention in this guide so people react immediarly. The good news is that it should be possible to list of the types/fields/methods which have this annotation. So if one can build a query listing all the deprecated for removal stuff, we may consider replacing the manual edit by a link to the query results. However, I don't think it's actually less work than doing manual updates.

[vogella]

In short we want to rely on http://help.eclipse.org/latest/topic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/reference/api/deprecated-list.html#forRemoval

[vogella]

See PMC meeting minutes for the simplification https://github.com/eclipse-platform/.github/wiki/PMC-Meeting-minutes