I personally do not feel the need to put "beta" directly into version name. 
However I agree with Juhani that this release should be marked as "beta" 
quality at least in documentation or release notes with a list of known issues 
if possible (for example FLUME-862, ...).

Just my 2 cents worth,
Jarcec

On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 10:36:11AM +0900, Juhani Connolly wrote:
> On 03/16/2012 02:22 AM, Arvind Prabhakar wrote:
> >On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 10:33 PM, Ralph Goers
> ><[email protected]>  wrote:
> >>On Mar 13, 2012, at 9:34 PM, Patrick Hunt wrote:
> >>
> >>>On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 5:59 PM, Ralph Goers<[email protected]>  
> >>>wrote:
> >>>>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?
> >>That is exactly why I started off this conversation with "The only question 
> >>I have is whether the community considers this release "stable" or "ready 
> >>for production" use".  It isn't so much a question of missing features, 
> >>although that may be important, but whether it provides the minimum 
> >>functionality to actually be used in production and there are no blocking 
> >>bugs.  If the PMC feels it isn't beta quality then don't call it one. But 
> >>if it is it should be labeled as such. The difference between alpha and 
> >>beta is simply a matter of how far the project feels the code is from being 
> >>production ready. For example, an alpha release will usually contain 
> >>something that gives an idea of the direction but isn't very usable. Beta 
> >>software frequently can be used but no one is very confident in it.  I 
> >>guess the real question to ask is, if you had a business to run with your 
> >>customers relying on your software would you be comfortable using it\?  If 
> >>the answer is no then it should be an alpha or beta release.  As engineers 
> >>many of us are never completely comfortable with people using our software 
> >>for fear something might break. We need to get over that.
> Fwiw, we are currently using scribed for our log collection on
> production servers. We want to use flume NG but do not feel
> comfortable running it in production yet. Considering what Ralph
> said, for that reason personally I think this should be considered a
> beta release, and think that any documentation should encourage
> early adopters to try it, but believe  that people mistakenly
> believing it  is a stable release is going  to cause a lot of pain
> to users as they figure out which features work properly and which
> don't.
> 
> >>I guess in this case I would say are we at the point where we are 
> >>recommending that Flume users use NG instead of OG. (It has to be one or 
> >>the other). If the answer is NG then I don't think it should be a beta.  If 
> >>you want them to try NG but still rely on OG then it should be a beta.
> >>
> >Thanks Ralph. Since no objections have be raised, I feel that we are
> >in agreement regarding the naming of this release. Specifically, we
> >don't want to label it as beta and would like to encourage users to
> >adopt it in favor of the prior 0.9.x release.
> >
> >>Mind you, this criteria is just my opinion. Everyone is free to judge the 
> >>code for themselves but this can be handled in 1 of 2 ways. 1) The project 
> >>(i.e. PMC) decides, 2) The release manager makes the decision. In most 
> >>communities he who does the work gets to make the decision but the PMC is 
> >>responsible for the release so, of course, has the right to make the call.
> >>
> >For now I will proceed with calling this version 1.1.0-incubating. If
> >there is disagreement, we can call a vote to settle. Note that I am
> >actively working on the release so any disagreement will have to be
> >resolved soon.
> >
> >Thanks,
> >Arvind Prabhakar
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>Ralph
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> 
> 

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: Digital signature

Reply via email to