The future of DEP0163

[Renegade334]

#44943 implemented a fix for diagnostics channels being garbage-collectable without a strong reference being held to the channel object.

It also doc-deprecated using the subscription methods on the channel object directly. However, the fix did apply to those methods as well AFAICT, so the deprecation rationale seems not to be accurate. (Indeed, the top-level subscription methods are just a wrapper for channel(name).<method>(listener), which is essentially the exact formerly-unsafe pattern that the deprecation was inspired by.)

In addition, the subsequently-added TracingChannel also implements subscription methods directly on the prototype, so removing these from channel objects would introduce asymmetry to the API.

Should DEP0163 be taken forward to a runtime deprecation, or should it be withdrawn?

cc: @Qard

[Qard]

Yes, the issue that was the reason for the deprecation was later resolved. Those methods just never got un-deprecated. We could certainly drop that deprecation now.