On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 23:21:07 +1100, Ben Finney wrote: > Chris Angelico <ros...@gmail.com> writes: > >> On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 7:51 PM, Ben Finney >> <ben+pyt...@benfinney.id.au> wrote: > >> > If you're pleased to announce their immediate availability, then >> > please do that! >> >> Isn't it perfectly accurate to say that the RCs are now available? > > Yes. What's not reasonable is to say that a candidate for release – i.e. > something *prior to* release, by definition – is nevertheless released.
We have a piece of software which has just been actively released to the public in a known fixed state, with a specific version number (2.6.8rc etc.). Since this active process of *releasing* software has occurred, the past tense "[RELEASED]" applies. What sort of software is it? Well, it's not a pre-alpha, or alpha, or beta version, nor is it the production-release version. It is a candidate to become the production-release, or "Release candidate". Hence we have the release [verb] of a release candidate [compound noun]. There is no contradiction here, any more than it would be a contradiction to release a beta version. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle >> Considering that "Release candidates" immediately followed "RELEASED" >> in the subject line, I don't see any confusion. > > Unless “release candidate” means nothing like what those words imply, it > can't be both a release candidate *and* released. What do you believe the words imply? I believe that they imply that the version is a candidate to be a production-ready release of the software, as opposed to a pre-alpha, alpha or beta version, but not yet the production-ready version. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
