I see no problem with inviting users to participate in the testing of a
release candidate. Perhaps a good way to handle this might be a post to
derby-user saying "Derby developers are testing a release candidate for
10.4 and we invite you to participate. If you're interested, more
information is available on derby-dev, see <url to derby-dev post>.
Please join us there."
That invites users to consciously test a release candidate, and pulls
them into the derby-dev side.
Yes, that seems like an excellent technique, and I feel it is in accord
with the intent of the Apache policy, just as you say.
I also think that it would be completely reasonable to hold a vote on
the 10.4.1.0 release for this purpose. Even though we may have another
release candidate in a few weeks, getting feedback on the existing one
could be quite helpful.
The only reason I can see to *not* routinely hold votes on release
candidates and promote them as you suggest, would be if we discovered
some horrible bug in the release candidate and felt it would be
pointless for anyone to try it because they'd just be tripping over
that problem constantly.
Or if there were to be a licensing issue, as you noted in an earlier post.
But I don't know of any such problems, of either type, with 10.4.1.0.
thanks,
bryan
