D versionning

[Adam Wilson]

On Sun, 15 Jul 2012 16:26:50 -0700, Walter Bright  
<newshound2 at digitalmars.com> wrote:

> On 7/15/2012 2:58 PM, Adam Wilson wrote:
>> The idea that bugs and new features can and should be rolled into the  
>> same
>> release runs counter to every accepted best practice in both FOSS and  
>> Commercial
>> wisdom. The two have VERY different velocities, bugs can be fixed in  
>> days, but
>> new features take much longer. Consider COFF support for example,  
>> Walter has
>> been hammering away at it for weeks now, and he isn't even 50% done,  
>> how many
>> bugs have been fixed and confirmed resolved, in the same timespan?
>
> Weeks is an exaggeration. And still, there have been a steady  
> accumulation of fixes.
>
>> Also,
>> consider that adding new features makes it significantly harder to  
>> track down
>> regressions (is a real regression or did the new feature upset the code  
>> in an
>> unexpected way) and the new features themselves create new bugs. If the  
>> branches
>> are separate then it becomes trivial to determine if the new feature  
>> caused the
>> bug, because it will show up in one and not the other.
>>
>> How DARE we DEMAND that our users wait 4 MONTHS for regression fixes  
>> because we
>> are afraid of a split or a little extra work? How many users could we  
>> lose if we
>> significantly slowed down the release cycle (and therefore the bugfix  
>> cycle)
>> such that people are waiting many months for their fixes? The language  
>> would be
>> perceived as dead/dying and that would be just as bad as the D1/D2  
>> split. If you
>> allow your past experiences to paralyze you into inaction, you will  
>> bring about
>> the very problem you seek to avoid.
>
> Sigh. Half say we release too often, the other half not often enough.
>

This would solve both complaints overnight. The half that say "not often  
enough" have critical bugfixes they are waiting on, the "too often" camp  
has new things that they want now (ex. COFF) and see all this bugfixing as  
getting in the way. I agree its a problem, but this makes both happy. The  
new feature camp can use dev and put up with the breakages (what we do  
now), and bugfix camp can get back to work.

-- 
Adam Wilson
IRC: LightBender
Project Coordinator
The Horizon Project
http://www.thehorizonproject.org/