On Fri, Jul 13, 2018 at 12:30 AM, Jonathan Moules <
jonathan-li...@lightpear.com> wrote:
> Hi Andrea,
>
> I believe it was Chrome that popularised the "every other release is a
> major release" thing, and so of course FireFox ended up following suit
> (number envy?). Fortunately FireFox has LTS\ESR releases, so sensible
> organisations use those.
>
> Personally I'm a fan of the current Semantic Versioning -
> https://semver.org/ - At least I'm assuming that's what GS is using and
> it's not just a coincidence. Sure GS has major new features in 2.12.x that
> are not in 2.8.x, but it's basically API compatible between versions. The
> recent QGIS 2.x to 3.x is a prime example of a good use of a Major increase
> because it is largely API incompatible.
>
> I suppose if GeoServer is going to continue always being backwards
> compatible then switching number scheme away won't lose anything, and in
> this era of version inflation it may become clearer to some users how far
> behind they are. But if it later starts having jumps where the API changes
> significantly (ala QGIS 2->3), that's going to get really confusing ("So
> lets see, 34 can go to... 43, then you need to manually go to 44, then you
> ....").
>
Yeah, we did not have such a massive change not even between 1.x and 2.x in
GeoServer, the motivation to switch from 1.x to 2.x was the different UI
and on disk configuration storage.
API wise in GeoServer we don't really have a "public API management" like
in GeoTools, any API change is basically fair game unless it touches a
extension point interface,
and even in that case, we just don't backport the change to stable and
maintenance, but it just goes in the next 2.X.y release.
This reminded me of the thread last year where I posted the versions for
> public GeoServer boxes - http://osgeo-org.1560.x6.
> nabble.com/Stats-on-GeoServer-versions-as-currently-
> deployed-td5314686.html - it really depends what the motivations are for
> the old versions. I haven't done similar with MapServer as yet which might
> offer some interesting insights into the end-user psychology of upgrading
> as they're at 7.1 I think, but over 20+ years.
>
Yeah, for comparison I wondered "what made MapServer go to 7.0?". This is
the list:
http://mapserver.org/development/announce/7-0.html
Hum... the changes we share in there got into a GeoServer release without
any major number switch. They were distributed in a larger number
of releases, mostly because we release a 2.x with new features every six
months (that's why I was thinking of browser versioning scheme,
the way our releases work is similar to those, continuous steady change
instead of just fixes for a while and then a major release with lots of new
stuff).
In the end that's the "problem" in terms of user perception, there are no
sudden jumps but there is also a constant flow of new features.
If you switch between 2.12.x and 2.13.x there are not that many changes
[1], but if you switch between 2.8.x and 2.13.x there is a ton [2].... how
do we communicate that?
Cheers
Andrea
[1] Cheap commit count between releases, considering also GeoTools changes,
since GeoServer is normally the driver for the bulk of them:
gs> git log 2.12.0..2.13.0 --pretty=oneline | wc -l
527
gt> git log 18.0..19.0 --pretty=oneline | wc -l
271
[2]
gs> git log 2.8.0..2.13.0 --pretty=oneline | wc -l
3603
gt> git log 14.0..19.0 --pretty=oneline | wc -l
2045
== GeoServer Professional Services from the experts! Visit
http://goo.gl/it488V for more information. == Ing. Andrea Aime @geowolf
Technical Lead GeoSolutions S.A.S. Via di Montramito 3/A 55054 Massarosa
(LU) phone: +39 0584 962313 fax: +39 0584 1660272 mob: +39 339 8844549
http://www.geo-solutions.it http://twitter.com/geosolutions_it
------------------------------------------------------- *Con riferimento
alla normativa sul trattamento dei dati personali (Reg. UE 2016/679 -
Regolamento generale sulla protezione dei dati “GDPR”), si precisa che ogni
circostanza inerente alla presente email (il suo contenuto, gli eventuali
allegati, etc.) è un dato la cui conoscenza è riservata al/i solo/i
destinatario/i indicati dallo scrivente. Se il messaggio Le è giunto per
errore, è tenuta/o a cancellarlo, ogni altra operazione è illecita. Le
sarei comunque grato se potesse darmene notizia. This email is intended
only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain
information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from
disclosure. We remind that - as provided by European Regulation 2016/679
“GDPR” - copying, dissemination or use of this e-mail or the information
herein by anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you
have received this email by mistake, please notify us immediately by
telephone or e-mail.*
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________
Geoserver-devel mailing list
Geoserver-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/geoserver-devel
