On 06/06/15 21:07, Simon Riggs wrote:
On 5 June 2015 at 17:20, Alvaro Herrera <alvhe...@2ndquadrant.com
<mailto:alvhe...@2ndquadrant.com>> wrote:
Simon Riggs wrote:
> On 5 June 2015 at 15:00, Robert Haas <robertmh...@gmail.com
<mailto:robertmh...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> > Stamping it a beta implies that we think it's something fairly
> > stable that we'd be pretty happy to release if things go well,
which
> > is a higher bar to clear.
>
> We don't have a clear definition of what Beta means. For me,
Beta has
> always meant "trial software, please test".
I think that definition *is* the problem, actually. To me, "beta"
means
"trial software, please test, but final product will be very
similar to
what you see here". What we need to convey at this point is what you
said, but I think a better word for that is "alpha". There may be more
mobility in there than in a beta, in users's perception, which is the
right impression we want to convey.
Another point is that historically, once we've released a beta, we're
pretty reluctant to bump catversion. We're not ready for that at this
stage, which is one criteria that suggests to me that we're not ready
for beta.
So I think the right thing to do at this point is to get an alpha out,
shortly after releasing upcoming minors.
OK, I can get behind that.
My only additional point is that it is a good idea to release an Alpha
every time, not just this release.
And if its called Alpha, lets release it immediately. We can allow
Alpha1, Alpha2 as needed, plus we allow catversion and file format
changes between Alpha versions.
Proposed definitions
Alpha: This is trial software please actively test and report bugs.
Your feedback is sought on usability and performance, which may result
in changes to the features included here. Not all known issues have
been resolved but work continues on resolving them. Multiple Alpha
versions may be released before we move to Beta. We reserve the right
to change internal API definitions, file formats and increment the
catalog version between Alpha versions and Beta, so we do not
guarantee and easy upgrade path from this version to later versions of
this release.
Beta: This is trial software please actively test and report bugs and
performance issues. Multiple Beta versions may be released before we
move to Release Candidate. We will attempt to maintain APIs, file
formats and catversions.
--
Simon Riggs http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/ <http://www.2ndquadrant.com/>
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services
As a 'user' I am very happy with the idea of having Alpha's, gives me a
feeling that there will be less chance of problems being released in the
final version.
Because not only does it give more chances to test, but might encourage
more people to get involved in contributing, either ideas for minor
tweaks or simple patches etc. (as being not quite finished, and an
expectation that minor functional changes have a possibility of being
accepted for the version, if there is sufficient merit).
Cheers,
Gavin
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