[dev] Fwd: HEAD

[Chuck Hagenbuch]

Quoting Eric Rostetter <eric.rostetter at physics.utexas.edu>:

> We could have done a Horde 3.0 release, then made the UI changes and in a
> short time released the new Horde 4.0 with the new UI. That would have
> been a good "release early and release often" plan.

But would the quick jump between Horde 3 and 4 have just caused us more
trouble? With having to release applications for both branches?

One of my goals for every major version Horde release is to make it more and
more possible to expand that release and making it possible to build on that
release without requiring tons of upgrades.

With Horde 2, we *have* mostly succeeded in letting people stick with Horde
2.0, if they choose, and upgrade other applications mostly independantly.

Our version numbering is still a bit confusing; it'd be ideal for things not
to depend on each other that much, but the fact that we have RELENG_1, 2,
and 3 for the same compatability level isn't ideal.

By moving to packages, I would hope to get us to a point where every app
would have a certain set of Horde/PEAR package dependancies, and moreso,
that upgrading, say, the Horde_Image lib would be relatively painless, so
that Kronolith 2.1 could add image functionality that wasn't in 2.0, and
just require a package upgrade. Or some other app could add functionality
that simply wasn't present before, and we could just release a new package
providing that functionality - instead of requiring a whole new major Horde
version.

Not breaking BC would be, perhaps, even more important, but if we give
ourselves enough good reasons not to do it, I think we can. And we can
figure out versioning at some point if we have to do it.

-chuck

--
Charles Hagenbuch, <chuck at horde.org>
"... It is not more light we need, but more warmth! We die of cold, not of
darkness. It is not the night that kills, but the frost." - Miguel de Unamuno