dmd 2.063 released with 260 bugfixes and enhancements

[Rob T]

On Friday, 31 May 2013 at 14:08:17 UTC, Leandro Lucarella wrote:
>
> About this, AFAIK 2.063.1 is really what's in the release, but 
> the
> binary version number (and the zip name) have only 2.063. I 
> think that
> should be fixed and the real version number should be present 
> in both
> downloadables and binary. Also a micro changelog should be 
> provided,
> only with the regressions that were fixed.

Of course, that absolutely makes sense and should be implemented 
by next release if possible.

> And I don't mean to minimize the incredible breakthrough 
> concerning the
> release process in this cycle, just pointing out places were we 
> can
> still do better :)

Agreed. Looking back just a couple of releases ago, the situation 
has improved considerably, but as always there's a lot more 
improvements that can and should be done.

As for the comment that RC's will be treated as stable releases, 
that's hard to swallow, esp when you consider what's going on 
now. The current release is worse than a RC because it's not 
labeled for what it is, people will think it's stable when in 
fact it's not. I think that it is far more professional and 
responsible to explicitly state that the version on the download 
page is a release candidate rather than not saying anything at 
all. People will get the wrong impression and think that it is a 
well tested and honed stable release.

To reduce potential confusion, we can place RC's in a separate 
download page.

Finally the RC can be a reasonably well tested version that is 
near completion to minimize the amount of re-work and bug 
potential. Even if it is misused by people who should know 
better, it'll still perform reasonably well, and the rest of us 
tinkerers will greatly benefit from having it.

Finally, making RC's available to the public will greatly help 
increase the quality of the final product and increase the 
confidence in it for production use.

It'll be a win-win for everyone, no question in my mind.

--rt