Florian Effenberger wrote:
Hi Peter and all,
the following came in from Peter Wilkins, [email protected], who
is *not* subscribed to these lists (so please don't forget the Cc ;-)
I have been struggling with various bugs in OOo 3.1 relating to
unprovoked
crashes, crashes related to spell-check and some other idiosyncrasies...
When I report these, I receive an auto-response from OOo inviting me
to try-out
one of the Dev Builds ... but it is difficult or impossible for me to
evaluate the
status and stability of the various builds out there.
I have worked in the IT sector for over 25 years, so I would not
expect to be
puzzled by such things, but I am. If I am, then you can assume that
the wider
public is completely baffled by the bewildering choices.
AFAIK it's not wanted to point the normal user to Developer Snapshots to
find out if the problem still happens with the latest software.
I realize that these builds are primarily targeted at the audience of
open source
programmers who are intimately aware of the day-to-day developments,
but the
public and even other IT professionals such as myself are not.
Yes
If it is the goal of OOo to become an accepted and trusted mainstream
alternative to Microsoft Office, then it is essential that there is a
more cogent and
user-friendly public front-end to the Dev Builds pages.
I do not advocate any changes to what the programmers have access to, but
quite frankly there is too much information and too many different builds
available to the general user and too little qualitative information
about each
build.
I don't think so. 1-2 builds aren't to too much and the amount of
information depends on the point of view. For every build we provide
release notes and sometimes we have integrated many changes, so that the
list is longer than normal. However, you should keep in mind that this
is just a short summary from the developers. If we would write down the
complete change (and maybe side effects, etc.), then the list would be
really long and very likely too long. But IMHO the current list is still
OK for a complex and big project like OOo.
I generally like the first landing page for Dev Builds:
http://download.openoffice.org/next/?cid=927698
"http://download.openoffice.org/next"; is enough to get the builds.
However, even here, there is precious little qualitative narrative to
guide visitors
as to what the two offered downloads actually are, and some statements
about
their level of progression since the previous formal release and ... most
IMHO even the status is very clear. It is always the next step since the
latest release. So it's by definition unstable and not applicable for
the normal user.
On the other side I don't know what you want to see as progression
inidication. The changes in the release notes (compared to the previous
snapshot) gives a short impression about the progress. If you need an
overview of longer time, then you have to look into the previous notes,
too (see the link "Release Notes" on the right nav bar):
http://development.openoffice.org/releases/dev_index.html
importantly ... there is NO indication how soon the next stable update is
expected to emerge. I don't think it is necessary to make binding
commitments
as to how this will unfold, but it should be possible to estimate by
weeks or
months when the next release is expected.
Here you are right. I've added a link to the nav bar to a release overview.
Of course some kind of graphical road map would be a great addition.
A graphical roadmap is not available AFAIK, but from time to time there
is a little graphic that gives an example about the upcoming release.
For 3.2 it's here:
http://development.openoffice.org/releases/ooo320_branch.png
Here is another example:
http://development.openoffice.org/releases/ooo_roadmap.pdf
I'll try to make this more visible and easier to find on a website.
Of the two offered most recent stable versions offered on the above page:
Download the most recent OOo-Dev 3.2.0 build (codeline OOO320)
Click to start downloading OOO320_m6 for Windows (US English)
Download the most recent OOo-Dev 3.x build (codeline DEV300)
Click to start downloading DEV300_m65 for Windows (US English)
It is not at all clear what 3.x refers to. Is this 3.1.x or is this
something beyond
3.2.0?!? I kind of suspect it is the former, but then I see
DEV300_m65, which
makes me think it is 3.0.x ... (as compared to OOO320_m6, which is
clearly 3.2)
... this is not at all clear.
We've put the 3.x builds below the 3.2.0. It should indicate that the
first points to the coming stable release and 3.x is always the latest
and greatest. The version number will always changes from time to time,
therefore it's just 3.x.
3.1 and 3.0 is done and closed. There won't be any new things or patches.
Do you think it would be more clear when we write 3.3 instead of 3.x?
The term "DEV300" is from the 3.0 beginning, to inicate that we have
started a new development towards OOo 3.0. Of course it is todays no
longer totally clear. However, we cannot always rename our unstable
codeline.
I hope my answers makes it more clear for you.
Best regards
Marcus
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