Just a few thoughts....
Jonathan Rockway wrote:
chromatic wrote:
I have my doubts that most dev releases get *any* attention.
I think the problem is that 99% of Perl users don't read mailing lists.
They download stuff from search.cpan (maybe), and then forget about it
until something breaks.
I think this is an interesting problem. :)
I'm guessing we have to somehow improve the channels where people DO read about
the modules. I think this means mainly through search.cpan.org and through the
different distribution tools (CPAN(PLUS)?|DPKG|RPM|etc). Most people are
obviously interested in stable software, but if they can get the option to
answer to
"There is a pre-release of [module] on CPAN. Would you like to test it? [Y/n]"
..at the point they're about to download it, they might just answer "yes" to
the question. If it's trivial to submit a test report, then I'd guess a few
more than 1% of the users would "help" a little more.
Maybe if we break stuff more often people will pay more attention? ;)
Let's think "community management"....
- The search.cpan.org website could show the different kinds of releases more
clearly. Not just a "This release field", but also a "Latest developer release"
if there has been one.
- Also, make it more clear what's it means to download a "developer release" or
"pre-release", including making it trivial/obvious to see that feedback is
welcome, where/how to do it.
- Set up some kind of syndication feed [RSS, Atom] [somewhere sensible] where
one can read which distributions currently have a "pre-release" status. The
feed might be called "NEED TESTING" or something like that. Make this feed
visible on central Perl-related websites (Perlmonks, use.perl.org, etc.) and
make it easy for Perl Monger groups to include this info on their websites.
- Add some way for authors to state what the purpose of a module release is
(e.g. "stable", "security update", "pre-release", "dev-release") and make this
available in the distribution META.yml file.
There. I'll go hide beneath my rock again.
- Salve
