On Thu, 29 Mar 2001, Christian Parpart wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I do not really know, why there're so many different
> versions of Tomcat out.
>
> * Tomcat 3.2.2 beta 2
> * Tomcat 3.3 Milestone 2 --> Tomcat 3.x-dev
> * Tomcat 4.0 beta 1 --> Tomcat 4.0-dev
>
The "-dev" identifies things that are from current CVS sources or nightly
builds, so that they can be distinguished from actual milestone or beta
releases.
> The Tomcat 4.0-b1 is a branch on its development version.
> the same (perhaps) for the 3.3 MS-2, too.
> But what about the 3.2.2 beta 2? Is that the most stable
> version of the current Tomcat versions?
Tomcat 3.2 is in maintenance mode only, and no new features will be added
to it. A release of Tomcat 3.2.2 final will happen soon, but because so
many people rely on it for production we're being really cautious about
making sure there are no major bugs in this code.
Tomcat 3.3 is a (fairly major) refactoring of the 3.2 code base, but still
based on supporting the servlet 2.2 and JSP 1.1 specifications. It also
runs on JDK 1.1 platforms as well as Java2 platforms. Tomcat 3.3 inherits
the relatively stable web connectors so that you can run behind Apache,
IIS, or iPlanet web servers.
Tomcat 4.0 is the next generation version of Tomcat, and supports the
current "proposed final draft" versions of the Servlet 2.3 and JSP 1.2
specifications. It is embedded inside the J2EE 1.3-beta reference
implementation, as well as running stand alone. In standalone mode it is
quite stable; the web connectors are not yet as mature as the ones in 3.x.
> Why is the 3.x version currently (hard) in development, when
> the the newer(?) 4.0 development tree exist?
There are probably lots of answers to that question, but I guess a good
summary would be "because people want to work on it". For more specific
reasons, you'd need to ask the individuals involved. (Full
Disclosure: I'm only working on the 4.0 branch.)
> Wich one is the most active version?
>
How do you measure "most active"? There are lots of people involved, lots
of new features and improvements, and lots of CVS commits on both paths.
> Greetings,
> Christian Parpart.
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Craig McClanahan
