[Development] Semi-private headers in Qt

[Edward Welbourne]

Artem Dyomin (21 May 2026 12:49) wrote:

> Well, according to the input, the word "experimental" brings messages
> regarding temporary status and transferring to public API in the future,
> that doesn't fit well to some cases.  To address this, I'd rather choose
> the word that reflects its semiprivate status and limited compatibility
> guarantees.
>
>  * protected - for me, it doesn't sound clear in terms of headers
>  * limited_compat - looks good, but doesn't reflect private status
>  * semiprivate - perhaps better as it reflects what it does
>
> So, what about "semiprivate"?

It's a half-way decent answer.
One other name springs to mind, more apt at least than "protected", but
likewise inspired by terms from C++: "mutable" - after all, we're
talking about APIs on which we don't promise compatibility - they may
change from one release to the next.

	Eddy.