GAP 4.9 syntax used, but PackageInfo.g claims 4.7 support

[jamesjer]

Attempting to use polycyclic 2.13.1 with GAP 4.8.10:

Loading the library and packages ...
Syntax error: literal expected in /builddir/build/BUILDROOT/gap-pkg-polycyclic-2.13.1-1.fc29.x86_64/usr/lib/gap/pkg/polycyclic-2.13.1/gap/exam/generic.gi line 89
pairs := ListX([1..n-1], i -> [1..n-i], {i,j} -> [j, i+j]);
^
The Dependencies section in PackageInfo.g says GAP := ">= 4.7". That should either be updated to 4.9, or the old function syntax should be used.

[olexandr-konovalov]

@jamesjer thank you. We hope to have GAP 4.9.1 very shortly (basically as soon as gap-system/gap#2418 completed and merged) and new Polycyclic will be usable.

On a meta level, dependencies in GAP packages IMHO are very unreliable in claiming backwards compatibility with old GAP releases. While some packages may have actually try to maintain it and have different provisions for different versions of GAP, some may still state some 5 or more years old releases and I don't expect that each change in such packages is really tested with old GAP releases. I think going back beyond one major release is completely impractical. In my packages, I am trying to bump GAP version number periodically, to reflect the version of the system under which it has been tested.

[fingolfin]

Thanks for your report, this will be fixed in the next release.