Wolf :)
And I was happy that ISC finally decided to restrict themselves to bug fixes in MAINTENANCE releases. The v4.1.x releases were far too unstable to simply install them without significant testing by us as too often new functionality that was developed in the V5 code base was simply backported without much QA.
Certainly this is a difficult issue.
I don't quite remember the 4.1.x releases, sorry about that - but if you look at 5.0.0 and say 5.0.4 we're talking about very different beasts. Mostly thanks to "little things" like scrollable result sets, better system task scheduler, etc.
Now with 5.0.11 I feel we could get a good feature that should not wreak havoc on pre-existing functionality... Albeit I still believe it's not worth it to try to do Web development without re-painting the entire page, but for people who like #server()# this means "less" moving parts, if only because of the whole Sun/Microsoft affair.
Then we have Peter's opinion - adhoc patches and the need to show something because 5.1 is *so* late. And that precisely is my point, which is not so different from yours when you think about it:
- Release x.y.z comes out - There is something you want to do which is not implemented yet - You resort to a temporary kludge until x.y.z+1 comes out - But your new feature won't be out until x+1.y.z
The last three major Cach� releases (3, 4, 5) have brought immense changes with them. This means that few shops are willing to deploy the ".0.0" releases. Given that those releases are coming out later and later, this means that major improvements are being significantly delayed. One year between releases, plus a couple of months before early adopters iron them out, plus like you say a couple more months to do in-house testing and planning the migration... Eventually, you are only getting new features every two years or so.
I understand ISC has limited resources and I don't demand faster releases, especially if it compromises quality. But I *do* prefer better spread releases, more sensible release plans. I guess this falls in line with an old complaint of many people here in that we seldom have a clear idea of the release plan - bad for long term planning. Sometimes I guess they just like to grab too much in one bite (or something to that effect...)
And don't even get me started with the whole 5.1/6.0 thing. In my mind it is cleary a 6.0 release, and the delays are but a sign of it.
Cheers :)
Ram�n
-- ZCacheLib - Open Source Extensions for Cach� http://www.zcachelib.org
