Misunderstanding developer previews versus release candidates

[J. Landman Gay]

On 11/3/13 10:52 AM, Richmond wrote:
> The title really says it all.
>
> LC 6.0.0 went through 5 developer previews and 7 release candidates.
>
> LC 6.0.1 went through NO developer previews and 1 release candidate.
>
> LC 6.0.2 went through NO developer previews and 1 release candidate.
>
> LC 6.1.0 went through 2 developer previews and 3 release candidates.
>
> LC 6.1.1 went through NO developer previews and 6 release candidates.
>
> LC 6.1.2 went through NO developer previews and 3 release candidates.
>
> LC 6.1.3 to date has NO developer previews and 1 release candidate.
>
> LC 6.5.0 to date has 2 developer previews and 1 release candidate.
>
> So, what with all the "funny numbers" after the 6, the developer
> previews and their numbers,
> and the release Candidates and their numbers.

Increases in the third number position are minor bug fix releases with 
no new features or major changes. If they've proved stable in-house, 
they are apt to go directly to release candidate for final testing.

Changes to the second-postion number indicate more significant changes 
and/or feature additions. They need to go through more testing and are 
usually first released as developer previews.

Changes to first-position numbers are significant rewrites with lots of 
major changes and additions. They go through lots of releases in both 
previews and release candidates.

RR has spelled this out before but I can't remember where. I suspect 
that 6.5 had fewer developer previews than usual because they received 
fewer bug reports on it. That's just an assumption on my part, based on 
my own experience, because I didn't even download a version of 6.5 until 
yesterday; I didn't have time to test and it wasn't ready for real work 
yet. (And I haven't found anything significantly wrong since last night 
either, but who knows.)

> ------------------
>
> I am sure that will get the expected sententious answer to this message
> from one of RunRev's
> uncritical cheer-leaders, and it will just trot out the official line.

I suppose that's me, quoting the "official line", but it seems sensible. 
It's how most software versioning and release cycles work. In fact, I'm 
not sure exactly what your complaint is; the system is normal operating 
procedure.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com