0.74 bugs

[Zamolxis]

I would like to see current version released at worst at 1st December, we can take it for bugfix release. We can wait with any major features for another month as in December I’m expecting the work to speed up. It’s rather irrelevant how the versions will be labeled as we won’t run out of numbers anyway.

By “at worst”, do you mean the latest, or the earliest?

But I agree. As we won’t run out of numbers anyway, I don’t think it matters much if 0.75 comes out without many new features or not. Though we had quite a few “feature” reports on Mantis which are resolved, so it’s not like we don’t have anything. Together with the bug fixes, there are 70 resolved items.

[Tow]

If you manage to prepare 0.73c with debug symbols and latest fixes (plus fix for #223) by Thursday, from Thursday evening till Sunday evening I have a free long week-end,

I’ll try to make next dev release within a day then.

The PC issue you had must have been quite a blow, which now probably makes December 1st a deadline pretty hard to meet for 0.75 (surely not with all the features you may have had in mind for it). However, just in case you are still considering it, here is what I could do from my part:

Actually none of the features I planned is done. Generally I wasn’t planning 0.75, I hoped to move directly to 0.8 at the Jan/Feb 2010. However lack of time and technical issues shattered my plans.
Now we have done several minor features and a lot of fixes. We can release 0.75 on 1 Dec but I’m not sure if the progress we made is worth of dragging community attention. Alternatively it may be just next dev build, with the “big announcement” postponed until 0.8 (or whatever will be next) with more new features is ready.

But what I would like to mention do not try to finish the 075 at the end of November by force. I know that it is kind of habit that new release appears first day of the month but what’s wrong with if it appears i.e. 10th of December. IMO nothing. And I’m sure that it is better way to omit the appearance of old renewed bugs and multiplied new bugs.

Project seems well-organized if the new builds are issued on the first days of month
More seriously, there are always bugs to fix. Delaying release in order to fix them usually leads to very rare releases. Which are buggy anyway, because all things added/changed in that time haven’t been thoroughly tested by the release.
“Release early, release often” says the rule. I don’t know if current pacing of releases is “often” but they’re at least regular.

One more thing. Testing and bugfinding still remains the most important goal of the releases. If we were able to make a bug-free release, there would be no need for any (until the project is done).
New bugs and some recurring ones are the imminent part of releases in the current stage of project development.

[Zamolxis]

There’s been a change in my schedule and I had to cancel my day off tomorrow (someone got sick and we have a project implementation). So I hope I didn’t make you rush too much with 0.74c for today, as I won’t be able to start the big testing before Saturday. The good news is that I got Monday free instead, so I still have 3 days free, which I’m mainly gonna spend on VCMI.

…I wasn’t planning 0.75, I hoped to move directly to 0.8 at the Jan/Feb 2010. However lack of time and technical issues shattered my plans.
Now we have done several minor features and a lot of fixes. We can release 0.75 on 1 Dec but I’m not sure if the progress we made is worth of dragging community attention. Alternatively it may be just next dev build, with the “big announcement” postponed until 0.8 (or whatever will be next) with more new features is ready.

I kinda like the idea of having a 0.75 release. The number sounds like a milestone (75%).

But we can leave it up to you if we announce it or not, if Warmonger updates the threads opened at CH & HC or not, a.s.o. Perhaps we could wait with the decision until Monday. If I do manage to do what I planned, and it turns out 0.75 promises to be quite free of major bugs, maybe we can still have a small announcement. 'Cause if that’s the case, it’d be still better if people following links from other sites would find their way to 0.75, rather than 0.74.

Project seems well-organized if the new builds are issued on the first days of month

Well, there’s truth in that. Theoretically there’s no difference in releasing a new build on the 1st or the 5th for example, in a 3 year long project. But somehow - subconsciously I guess - I can’t help a feeling of extra satisfaction if we manage to make it for the 1st.

Perhaps the project even ‘is’, not only ‘seems’ more organized like this. But regardless of that, it’s good in general for the PR if we uninterruptedly manage to stick to the ‘promise’ of bi-monthly releases, while in the same time remaining ourselves on the safe side by not making specific promises in advance.