DMD 1.032 and 2.016 releases

[Steven Schveighoffer]

"Robert Fraser" wrote
> Steven Schveighoffer Wrote:
>
>> "Robert Fraser" wrote
>> > Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
>> >> No, Tango devs will be debugging it.  Hell, let them do the work with 
>> >> a
>> >> pre-release compiler.  I'll volunteer to do it.  If they determine it 
>> >> is
>> >> a DMD bug, they give you a minimal case, and then you go back and fix 
>> >> it,
>> >> or you determine that it can't be fixed for this release (with
>> >> appropriate bugzilla entry logged).
>> >
>> > This is a bad idea. Why not just release it and let the whole community
>> > test it? After all, there is a "stable" version of the 1.x branch, the
>> > newer releases are all possibly breaking.
>>
>> Tango is 1.x only.  It is the new releases in the stable branch (e.g. 
>> 1.032)
>> that break Tango.  When a new release in a stable branch breaks 
>> something,
>> it's by definition, not stable :)
>>
>> For 2.x, I agree, because it's not a release anyways.  It's just a
>> pre-release until 2.x is blessed.
>>
>> -Steve
>
> That. It can be said that everything released is a "pre-release" until one 
> of
> them is stable enough to make it to the download page. This way,
> everyone who is active can continue testing their projects & reporting
> regressions, not only a few people considered special.

OK, I didn't get what you were saying earlier.  I thought you were saying 
that D 1.0 is the stable branch, not that there is a stable version of D1.0 
on the download page.  Sorry for the misunderstanding.

But regardless of that, I think Tango is special because it is a critical 
basis for many many projects.  Here is what ends up happening:

1. Someone using tango finds a bug in DMD 1.x, files it
2. Walter releases code to fix the bug, but inadvertantly adds a bug that 
makes it so tango cannot build
3. Walter fixes tango bug, and 1 month later, releases another version with 
another bug that makes it so tango can't build
... rinse and repeat
10. Person who found original DMD bug still can't use DMD, because he is 
relying on a good build of Tango, which requires the compiler that has the 
bug in it.

Besides this annoyance, Tango can be looked at as a really good exercise for 
DMD.  If Tango compiles, and Phobos compiles, then most likely DMD is stable 
enough to be useful for everyone.  I can't see any down side to having Tango 
devs test a pre-release version of DMD.  It should just be one of the screen 
tests that helps make DMD a better product, and helps make D less 
frustrating to those of us who rely on Tango.

-Steve