Best way to handle multiple-version mods?

[AnOpenSauceDev]

Description

When developing mods for multiple versions of minecraft, a change in a class used by minecraft will inevitably cause issues/crashes. Is there a safe way to either bundle multiple mod versions in one JAR, or should I just maintain multiple branches of a mod?

[apple502j]

@AnOpenSauceDev People usually maintain multiple branches. You probably only maintain two or three branches at most, and it keeps the filesize smaller.

[AnOpenSauceDev]

That's what i usually do, but if it's not possible to handle for specific versions, i guess i have to stick to this method.

[AnAwesomGuy]

reflection :)
i highly doubt that using reflection is good practice but you can if you want to.

[AnOpenSauceDev]

Reflection is definitely a dark programming art, but technically answers this Q&A.

[caoimhebyrne]

I know this discussion is old, but reflection really isn't the best solution here, there's no guarantee that it'll work properly, and it's quite ugly to say the least.

I agree with apple502j, multiple branches if you just want to support the most recent X versions is the way to go.

[AnOpenSauceDev]

I found out something pretty interesting, you can totally package different JARs of your mod in fabric.mod.json, then check for the version to run. It's very slow to develop, but you can use preprocessor to speed it up a bit. Overall it could be an interesting concept to use for anyone interested.