On 9/19/2005 8:53 PM, Jeff Genender wrote:
Jeremy Boynes wrote:
Jeff Genender wrote:
> +1 on what Matt says...and i will take it a step further. Instead of
> MX, why not let this next one be the RC1?
>
To me an RCx implies feature freeze and bugfixes only and it doesn't
sound like we mean that here given the console is "50%" done.
I don't agree here...IMHO RCx means you are on the way to a 1.0 and
you are getting "previews" of what is in there. But to add on to what
you said...at what point do we say "feature freeze" and this is what
will be in 1.0? Right now we appear to be shooting randomly as to
which is what, and in what release. Why can't we delegate back to our
roadmap (or a roadmap) and state what will be in each release going
forward? i.e. M5 will have these items...and 1.0 will have those
items? I think its important that we spell out what will be in 1.0
final. We could debate this all day...but unless we give ourselves
some targets, we will never know when we have achieved our goals.
So let me take back my RCx statement. I would think we let this last
M5 go (because we promised it and have already went through the
motions), and then define what is 1.0. Lets do the RCx...minimum 2
rounds (RC1 and RC2), and try to target a date for 1.0.
It has been my experience that milestone releases were snapshots of
software that was in the alpha stage. The snapshots were taken at
meaningful times where the feature set was thought to be compelling and
self consistent for those who wanted to take an early peek. It is
important to stress that this was *alpha* software and not feature
complete. Milestone releases were not supported, i.e. patches were
*never* made. Milestone snapshots were made off the trunk. Tags were
made, but quickly removed after the next milestone was hit, for the
purposes of development in case of a regression. A modicum of testing
was done on the milestone to make sure that it at least started.
Release candidates were snapshots of beta software. The trunk is
branched and the release candidates were snapshots of this branch.
These snapshots were thought to be feature complete but it was
understood that a certain amount of QA effort needed to be made to
ensure a certain amount of quality. During beta, all feature additions
were frozen. Release candidate themselves were not supported. Tags
were made, but quickly removed after the next release candidate was
released, for the purposes of development.
Once it was agreed that the last RC was of an acceptable quality, it was
made into the official release tag.
To recap, milestone and release candidates are both useful at different
times. Milestones are alpha snapshots and are not supported. Release
candidates are snapshots of beta software and are not supported. The
last release candidate that is officially released is what is supported.
Regards,
Alan
