On 16/12/2015 11:15, Guy G4DWV/4X1LT wrote: > Hi, Hi Guy, > > Does this mean that Joe does not want users to go on the air with the latest > builds compiled with JDSDK? At present that is the recommendation for the development branch. The intent is that during periods of disruptive development we would like to embargo the development branch for on-air use. We will probably designate revisions that are usable from time to time, such designated revisions should be considered as a technology preview or alpha quality. Between those designated revisions the development branch is no more than a sandpit for developers to exchange ideas and partial implementations. > > Does this mean that I can only use the official release in future? Not at all, if you build WSJT-X yourself then you can use it on air or to contribute to the development effort by testing or contributing patches. Currently we are making it clear that work in progress is definitely not stable and is not intended for on-air use. What seems not to be getting through is that the development branch is where developers operate, building it and going on air should not be for normal day to day usage. If you are chasing your Amateur Radio goals using the development version, for example working new ones, chasing US states, new grids etc. then you are not contributing. If your goal is to help with the development of WSJT-X by contributing source code changes or testing new features then the development branch is relevant to you.
The background is that the development team use the SourceForge public source code repository to collaborate on new features, this means that incomplete code is nearly always live on the development branch. It simply is not expected to work. > > Sorry for the questions, but I do not know what 'head of the branch' means, > but I think that my guess could be close to the mark. The HEAD of a branch is the latest revision. A branch in source control is the summation of all previous changes, you can build from the HEAD or any prior revision. There are also multiple branches that represent previous releases, these allow bug fixes to be applied to stable code bases in the event that serious issues are discovered post release. There is a dichotomy with the development branch, if you build prior revisions then we are not prepared to support you, you are on your own; if you build the branch HEAD then you will have non-working software most of the time. So the development branch is not supportable, if you use it you must be able to diagnose and fix problems yourself. > > I would like to apologise to Joe for supplying a fellow ham with a compiled > installation file in the belief that I was helping a fellow ham in the > spirit of the hobby. This is reasonably acceptable on a one to one basis, we understand that the modes available in WSJT-X are great fun to use and we all want to demonstrate them to our fellow operators. If you do that then you are also responsible for support if something goes wrong. What is not welcome is wholesale distribution of binary packages without consent and without any intent to offer support, this is simply free loading as I say above and is not in the spirit of the hobby. You should also consider that if an operator is new to the WSJT-X application then they are probably far better off with an official release version which we will gladly help out with if things do not work as advertised. > > Merry Christmas and Happy New year to all here. Likewise! > > 73 de Guy > 73 Bill G4WJS. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ wsjt-devel mailing list wsjt-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wsjt-devel
