Deprecate Markdowngen?

[sneakers-the-rat]

I see docgen being marked as a replacement for markdowngen:

linkml/linkml/generators/docgen.py

Line 86 in 9cc2410

Note: this is a replacement for MarkdownGenerator

And this is mentioned in an issue from 2022: #923

But markdowngen is still used in projectgen, which is often the entrypoint for new users (or at least it was for me)

linkml/linkml/generators/projectgen.py

Line 44 in 9cc2410

MarkdownGenerator,

Describe the solution you'd like
What still needs to be done to reach feature parity? What would it take to deprecate Markdowngen?

Asking as part of an ongoing effort to slim down old code to make contributing and use approachable :) recognizing that theres a lot of history here.

How important is this feature? Select from the options below:
• Low - it's an enhancement but not crucial for work

When will use cases depending on this become relevant? Select from the options below:
• Long-term - 6 months - 1 year

[sujaypatil96]

Thanks for the issue @sneakers-the-rat! I've been procrastinating this for a while. I'm OOO rest of this week, but will take this on as an item for myself next week.

[nlharris]

Maybe at next week's linkml dev meeting we can discuss the proper protocol for deprecating whole generators.

[sneakers-the-rat]

@nlharris ya ya- I sketched a rough set of guidelines here: https://linkml.io/linkml/developers/deprecation.html
But it lacks specific recommendations for how much of a lead we should give on removal versions. I figure its pretty case by case - eg. For each major deprecation we would decide in the issue when it should be removed, but having some table of guidelines for different types of deprecations would be great