Hi *, On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 1:37 PM, Florian Effenberger <[email protected]> wrote:
> the following came in from Peter Wilkins, [email protected], who is > *not* subscribed to these lists (so please don't forget the Cc ;-) cc'd >> When I report these, I receive an auto-response from OOo inviting me to >> try-out >> one of the Dev Builds ... but it is difficult or impossible for me to >> evaluate the >> status and stability of the various builds out there. >> [...] Hmm. What exactly is the problem? - As they are dev builds, the status of the stability is more or less unknown. It is believed that the released builds are usable, but of course they didn't receive any special testing. >> [...] >> If it is the goal of OOo to become an accepted and trusted mainstream >> alternative to Microsoft Office, then it is essential that there is a more >> cogent and >> user-friendly public front-end to the Dev Builds pages. I don't quite understand that point. http://download.openoffice.org/ → either release candidates button (when a new release is near) http://download.openoffice.org/all_rc.html → or the developer snapshot one (always, "bleeding edge"): http://download.openoffice.org/next/index.html The developer snapshots are labeled as "unstable", the release candidates as "nearly ready" >> I generally like the first landing page for Dev Builds: >> >> http://download.openoffice.org/next/?cid=927698 >> >> However, even here, there is precious little qualitative narrative to >> guide visitors >> as to what the two offered downloads actually are, Here again I don't really get your point. There's only one big button, that defaults to your current OS, so use that big fat button and you got the build. Only if the autodetection fails, use the "more platforms and language packs....." link below the button. Also, on the right hand side there are definitions of Release Candidate, Beta Versions and Developer Snapshots. >> and some statements >> about >> their level of progression since the previous formal release Oh, that one is easy to answer: The list would be huuuuuuuge. But if you have a look at the right navigation area: There's a release-note link: http://development.openoffice.org/releases/dev_index.html That page lists the changes for a given milestone. If you want to know what changed since a released version, first navigate to the corresponding stable version. An example: OOo 3.1.1, on the OOO310 codeline is a continuation of the OOo 3.1.0 release. Thus for 3.1.0 you'll find "OOO310_m1 (branched from DEV300_m40)" If you now want to know what changed in the current developer milestone (DEV300_m68), you need to have a look at all the release notes from DEV300_m41 up to DEV300_m68[1]. Have a look at a few and you'll realize that it is impossible to maintain and offer a plain "changelog". [1] 3.1.1 is OOO310_m19 - so there is a certain overlap with the DEV300 codeline >> and ... most >> importantly ... there is NO indication how soon the next stable update is >> expected to emerge. I don't think it is necessary to make binding >> commitments >> as to how this will unfold, but it should be possible to estimate by weeks >> or >> months when the next release is expected. True - that info is not really visible on the download-pages. But it's avaliable in the wiki: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Product_Release → http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/ReleaseSchedule → http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/OOoRelease32 >>[...] >> It is not at all clear what 3.x refers to. Is this 3.1.x or is this >> something beyond >> 3.2.0?!? I kind of suspect it is the former, but then I see DEV300_m65, >> which >> makes me think it is 3.0.x ... (as compared to OOO320_m6, which is clearly >> 3.2) >> ... this is not at all clear. http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Branch_off ciao Christian --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
