FlexAPI backward compatibility

Andy - KU7T

I am working on some station automation code that use the Flex Lib version 3.0.8. Is there a newer version out there to get?

Also, if I wanted to support older FlexLib APIs what strategies should be applied? Do you build your own FlexLib API dlls for differnet versions? Then I would also have to ship these dlls. Becomes messy. 

How have others dealt with this?

73
Andy
KU7T 

Jim Shaffer

I allow users to send me debug information, and part of that is the version of their firmware.  If that differs from the version my program was built with, which is known to my users, then I may have to say something like, "You're using unsupported firmware."  If it's obviously my problem though, I'll fix it.

Andy - KU7T

Call it firmware or SmartSDR. Does not matter. there are 3 supported versions of SmartSDR v1, v2 and v3. Ideally, a piece of software should be able to handle these all, and gracefully degrade functionality that does not exist yet (multiFlex does not exist in v2, as an example). But the rest of the program should still function.  

This is what I was trying to see how others have dealt with it...

73
Andy
KU7T

James Whiteway

I'm just a wanna be programmer. I have wondered about the same thing. One thing I do know is that sometimes, between versions, there is more changed than features and functionality. Some command/response structures are changed in the newer API that streamline the particular function, and that requires recoding to pass parameters to the radio and read the responses correctly. Because of that, and getting newer features that interest me, I have continued upgrading as new major versions have come out. That has led to some head scratching at times! :-) James WD5GWY

Andy - KU7T

You hit the nail on the head. That is certainly also a tricky part. But that can be dealt with. That's what I called earlier to "gracefully degrade functionality" if some features are not supported.

However, the mechanism of packaging 3 API version, with a way to switch on program start and writing my own program to an API interface rather than the actual instance of an API version, that's what I am trying to wrap my head around...  I am sure I can figure it out, but I thought this is a common enough case for others already solved it...

Andy
KU7T