Housekeeping MySql 5.7 before release

Compared to the previous version 5.6, many interesting features have been added and just as many have been changed. But the thing that left me a little perplexed concerns the change, compared to version 5.7.6, in the users' MySql system tables with a change of name of a column from "password" to "authentication_string". It is clear that evolutionary changes must be made and almost always involve some side effects, but this change, which in itself seems minimally invasive, no longer allows many "technical" scripts and programs to work except by modifying the program, where possible.

An example is the famous Mysql Sandbox by Giuseppe Maxia which was promptly pathed by its programmer to return to working correctly.

For the more curious, I report an excerpt from the release note of the change, where it reads: the link to the release note of the change for the more curious, where it reads: "The authentication_string column in the mysql.user table now stores credential information for all accounts. The Password column, previously used to store password hash values for accounts authenticated with the mysql_native_password and mysql_old_password plugins, is removed."

A method that seems a little more correct to me has instead been adopted with other system functions, also old since Mysql existed (that I know of), for the system variables that allow you to read the global and session configuration of MySql which have been converted into a reading of a table from which to read the values.

A variable with the name "show_compatibility_56" has been set up and can be set with ON / OFF values which, in addition to being already speaking in itself as a name, is very convenient and allows you to "beat around" for the change to the next major release (this is the link to the documentation https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/server-system-variables.html#sysvar_show_compatibility_56 ).

So rightly 5.7 is a major release and there may be more significant changes, but the "basic" things about a program so used should not be touched in a "either the new thing or it doesn't work" mode.