On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 5:59 PM, Ralph Goers <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Mar 13, 2012, at 4:55 PM, Patrick Hunt wrote: > >> On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 4:31 PM, Ralph Goers <[email protected]> >> wrote: >>> >>> On Mar 13, 2012, at 4:08 PM, Eric Sammer wrote: >>> >>>> +1 on Arvind as 1.1.0 RM and on a 1.1.0 branch. +0 on labeling the release >>>> beta. Kind of feel like it's something to list in the README (on advice >>>> from phunt) and just release. Otherwise, it sounds like there will be a >>>> 1.1.0 final (which the ASF doesn't do). The advice I got when we tackled >>>> this with 1.0.0 was that the ASF produces releases, period. The quality can >>>> be indicated in the README (unless I misunderstood). >>> >>> I'm not sure whose advice you got but other projects do versions like >>> 1.2-beta all the time. IMO opinion labeling this 1.1-beta-incubating makes >>> it clear to everyone what it is even without reading the README, including >>> anyone typing the version in their pom - who almost never read those. >> >> A couple good items on the faq about this, see this for general >> details on what's a release: >> http://www.apache.org/dev/release.html#what > > You didn't see this paragraph in the link above? > > Releases are packages that have been approved for general public release, > with varying degrees of caveat regarding their perceived quality or potential > for change. Releases that are intended for everyday usage by non-developers > are usually referred to as "stable" or "general availability (GA)" releases. > Releases that are believed to be usable by testers and developers outside the > project, but perhaps not yet stable in terms of features or functionality, > are usually referred to as "beta" or "unstable". Releases that only represent > a project milestone and are intended only for bleeding-edge developers > working outside the project are called "alpha". > > While this doesn't mean you have to include the terms in the name but I read > that as certainly implying it. >
I did see that, however I've found that Apache docs typically are explicit if there are explicit requirements. otw the community is enabled to do as they see fit. >> >> Also this which goes into a bit more detail about types of releases: >> http://www.apache.org/dev/release.html#release-typeso >> >> In neither of these cases is Apache proscribing how to "name" your >> release however (although in the incubator you must indicate clearly >> "incubating"). Just the process that must be followed to consider >> something a release. >> >> My personal experience (granted it's with Hadoop related projects) is >> that they typically do not include the quality level in the name >> itself. Rather putting it in the readme, release notes, etc... But >> that's up to you. Some projects at Apache certainly do this, but none >> that i've been involved with. My personal preference is to have >> release notes that cover any issues the user should be aware of, >> rather than relying on "alpha/beta" labels in the name which might be >> confusing. > > Not every project is Hadoop. Yes, that's absolutely true. The point I was trying to get across is that I only have experience with Hadoop projects, and am therefore biased in my experience. The community should consider other opinions/insights, such as what you are raising. > > In Maven we do this all the time, both for Maven itself and the plugins. I > recall doing it for Cocoon. > > http://archive.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-7/ > http://archive.apache.org/dist/httpd/ > http://archive.apache.org/dist/httpcomponents/httpclient/binary/ > http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/lang/binaries/ (Notice that 3.0, > which broke compatibility, had a beta) > http://archive.apache.org/dist/jackrabbit/ > > In fact, I would say it is more the norm to do this than not. > > Again, I'm used to dealing with Maven users. They will assume that if it > doesn't have alpha or beta in the version then it isn't one. Seems a reasonable approach. How do you decide what is alpha vs what is beta vs a regular release? is there some special implication of alpha vs beta? Patrick
