> David Megginson wrote: > > I agree with Curt. There are two basic strategies for releasing: > > 2. Release often, testing every release only lightly. > > I think that #2 works better for most cases > > What he said. > > One way of looking at it is this: The goal isn't to produce individual > releases with the greatest quality, it's to produce the best software > we can with the resources available. Waiting on releases for testing > means that developers have to put off contributions, bug reports on > those contributions then come in later than they would otherwise, the > bug fixes go in later and the next release gets pushed back. We end > up doing less development and making fewer releases, which is *bad* > for software quality in the long run. > > Andy
My current task (daytime) involves leading the development of prototype space shuttle flight software, which includes testing the releases and writing the release reports. If I took the above approach I'd be out of a job in two minutes. Obviously, it's different for volunteer efforts. I would strongly disagree with the sentiment that seems to be reflected in the statement: "The goal isn't to produce individual releases with the greatest quality, it's to produce the best software we can with the resources available." This seems to say, "release often, and we really don't care if it works that well or not because we're in a hurry and don't have much help". IMHO, that's what we do in CVS as we develop. Releases are a different matter altogether. How many releases have been put together in the past year? Since January 2003 there have been three releases (IMHO this is NOT "often"). The release before that had to be redone within days because a file was missing, I think. My hope is that the pre-releases could sit as is a bit longer - I'd say at least over a weekend - so more people can have a chance to try it out. What's a few days more in comparison to the several-month release cycles? My experience tells me this would result in less re-work in the long run, and it would also result in a better release. It would also use a lot more of the "resources we have available" by allowing more people to use their "available resources" on weekends or as time permits to help out and _share_the_burden_. Jon _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
