Re: [Flexradio] All using SVN 3166 or higher

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:34:46 -0700 

Gerald,
Sounds great to me. This makes clear the difference bwteen the experimental SVN and the Offical Release, and allows support to focus on where it is most needed---to get people up and running on their Flex radios. Also, as has been pointed out, the experimental versions are, by their nature, incomlpetely vetted, they are by their very nature, buggy. Correcting them is of concern to the experimenters who are developing them. They have little to do with routine raqdio operation, other than showing promise for the future if and when they get debugged and stable. 


People sometimes forget that even the early Offical Releases were head and 
shoulders above what anyone had ever had before. I would still be happy with 
my original  release, I think around the 1.12.0 version, I started with. I 
like the improvements, but I have always realize the SVN versions I use are 
still in development, a development I can help by responsibly reporting 
bugs and making suggestions. Complaing that an SVN version does not work 
makes no sense, really, once you understand they are experimental.



Hope this helps clarify things for future Flexers. I see no reason anyone 
with a minimally acceptable computer and skills, and the help of Dudley et. 
al. with the few initally glitches some of us may have in getting set up, 
should not join us. Suggesting otherwise is bordering on the unfair, and 
there are always peole who will complain and blame others, but this will 
help to remove one source of such grumps.


Best,
Pete (K2HGO)




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gerald Youngblood" <ger...@flex-radio.com>
To: "'Howard S. White'" <drpa...@kleega.com>; <mnar...@comcast.net>; "'Dave 
Gomberg'" <da...@wcf.com>

Cc: <flexradio@flex-radio.biz>
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 9:54 AM
Subject: Re: [Flexradio] All using SVN 3166 or higher



Membership in the "Experimental Group" will be open to all FlexRadio

customers who are willing to follow the rules associated with the 
privilege.

We reserve the right to restrict access to certain highly experimental SVN
branches until they are stable enough for testing outside the developer
group itself.  One important rule that comes with the privilege: Do not

expect technical support from FlexRadio when running any software other 
than

the then current Official Release.

Let me note that virtually all public and private comments on this topic
have been extremely supportive of making the split in the reflector.  We

will put a lot of thought into how we proceed before we pull the trigger 
on

the change.

73,
Gerald

Gerald Youngblood, K5SDR
President
FlexRadio Systems
13091 Pond Springs Rd. #250
Austin, TX 78729
Phone: 512-535-4713
www.flex-radio.com

"Tune in excitement!" (TM)


-----Original Message-----
From: Howard S. White [mailto:drpa...@kleega.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 6:25 PM
To: ger...@flex-radio.com; mnar...@comcast.net; Dave Gomberg
Cc: flexradio@flex-radio.biz
Subject: RE: [Flexradio] All using SVN 3166 or higher

I do agree that for marketing purposes you need to separate the Support
Reflector from the Experimental Group.

There are a lot of people who do not understand the difference between
Support and Experimentaion and it is pretty obvious that your
competitors are pointing to the bugs incurred in Experimentation as
being symptomatic of product defects.

Please do not limit membership to the Experimental Group.

A lot of people lurk in the background reading the issues about the
latest developments and occasionally we may actually have something
useful to contribute.

By restricting membership in the Experimental Group, you will be
cutting yourself off from a very valuable resource and ultimately
slowing your developmental progress.

So please do not cut your nose off to spite your face.

__________________________________________________________
Howard S. White Ph.D. P. Eng., VE3GFW/K6  ex-AE6SM  KY6LA
Website: www.ky6la.com
"No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"
"Ham Antennas Save Lives - Katrina, 2003 & 2007 San Diego Fires, 911"


-----Original Message-----
From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz
[mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Gerald Youngblood
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 1:50 PM
To: mnar...@comcast.net; 'Dave Gomberg'
Cc: flexradio@flex-radio.biz
Subject: Re: [Flexradio] All using SVN 3166 or higher

Mike,

I am sure we can find a happy medium that meets the interests of both
groups.  We will put a lot of thought into it, taking into account all
of the comments we are getting on the subject.  Foremost, there needs to
be some qualification of who fits in which group and where they
communicate.  I also agree that it should be called,
"experimental/prototype."

Regards,
Gerald

Gerald Youngblood, K5SDR
President
FlexRadio Systems
13091 Pond Springs Rd. #250
Austin, TX 78729
Phone: 512-535-4713
www.flex-radio.com

"Tune in excitement!" (TM)


-----Original Message-----
From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz
[mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Mike Naruta
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 3:21 PM
To: Dave Gomberg
Cc: flexradio@flex-radio.biz
Subject: Re: [Flexradio] All using SVN 3166 or higher


That sort of models the modern amateur radio transceiver manufacturers.
You may get an upgrade infrequently, after it has been tested many
times.  We are familiar with that process.


One group of hams are attracted to the
Flex-Radio products because of the
performance and features.

Another group enjoys the dynamics of a
Software-Defined Radio and thrives on the improvements and new features.

Do we limit the second group's access
to placate the first group's fears of a
software problem?  Had the development
been closed, we would have missed the
excellent contributions from those not
in the original developer group.

What if instead of talking about SVN or
alpha versions, we called it experimental or prototype versions?  It
implies the possibility of problems and the unsupported nature of the
software.  A kind word off- reflector to those who talk about issues
with the experimental versions here should be adequate.


Mike - AA8K


Dave Gomberg wrote:



IBM developed this fork in the 1970's when an operating system might
support thousands of concurrent users on one CPU and cost millions per



day to be down (like the principal Merril-Lynch machine that did about



40% of the NYSEs volume).

Development started out experimentally, when the developer was sure it



was right, he ran it on his own work machine in production.   When he
survived, he ran it on a machine shared with a few development
buddies.   When it passed that test, it ran on a shared machine for

the

whole development lab, in a version that might contain several changes



all slotted for the same release schedule.

When it was believed stable, it was shipped to the research labs for
use in their environments (this was called alpha testing, since it was

the

first non-development test).   When it passed alpha test, it was
released to volunteer real users in the real world (this was called

beta

test, nobody risked big money on a beta test).   Beta testers got

direct

to level 3 support so that problems could be quickly described and
resolved.

Finally a "general availability" release was announced, prepared,  and



delivered (in that order).   Usually 60% of installations were on the
latest release, 30% one release back, and sprinklings of others (who
got tired of hearing that the fix to their problem was to upgrade).



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