[bt-devel] Release naming and timing (was: Your changes in CVS)

[Jonathan Marsden]

Jaak Ristioja wrote:

> For example I made an ebuild for gentoo for BibleTime 2.3 and skipped
> bugging the developers until the latest 2.3.X bugfix, because I 
> thought it would be impolite to bug them so often.

Likewise, it makes it harder for me to decide when to work on packaging 
up a new BT release to have the sequence of "2.3 final", followed 
rapidly by multiple "oh no it wasn't really final" fix releases, 
followed almost immediately by a 2.4.beta1 :)

For now, I decided to ignore BT .beta* releases completely, no 
exceptions, and to only look at packaging .rc* releases if I really feel 
inspired to do so :)  I downloaded the 2.4.rc1 tarball, but then decided 
with all the recent activity I'll just wait for a "final" 2.4 release.

"Release early, release often" is good; I'd love to see SWORD do more of 
that!  Labelling those early releases in a way that accurately reflects 
their level of testing and their closeness to a final release is also 
very helpful.  I think BT now has the first part (early/often) in very 
good shape -- that is encouraging and very positive; tweaking the 
process to improve the second part (appropriate naming/testing) is 
something I would benefit from.

Jonathan