Hi Jon!
Jonathan Eric Miller wrote:
> Anyone have any ideas on when Tomcat 4.0 might be released?
Tomcat 4.0 will be the reference implementation of servlet spec 2.3,
which isn't still out. Therefore, it cannot be released until the spec
is ready and finished -- which should be around september, I hear.
> I see that it's
> currently in Beta 5 whereas 3.3 is only at milestone 4.
Yes, and they target different audiences. If you are using JDK 1.1 and
servlet spec 2.2 is fine for you, you'll want Tomcat 3.3. Otherwise,
wait for the final release.
Yet, from what I've read, both releases are quite stable right now. My
experience with milestones 2, 3 and 4 has been very satisfactory.
> As far as I can
> tell, milestones are actually Alphas. Why not name them as such?
'Alpha' is a commercial term. From the developer's perspective, you
reach milestones and may choose to publish them. Since this is an Open
Source project, you get access even to the nightly builds -- so you can
test it early on and bugs are pinned up as soon as possible.
However, don't let this fact fool you about the quality of the milestone
releases -- just download it and see. If you find any bugs, don't forget
to report them in Bugzilla.
> Is 4.0 expected to be released before 3.3? If so, what's the point of 3.3?
I hope it's clear now :) The developers say that v3.3 is an evolution,
while v4 is a revolution -- a completely different codebase. You might
say that v3.3 is v3.2.1 refactored, slimmed down and faster.
As you may have heard, v3.2's major pitfall was speed: everyone claimed
to be superior. v3.3 is vastly improved in that regard, and code is
better organized. v4 will probably be very fast too, since a lot of
great developers are working on it.
Un saludo,
Alex.
