[dev] Release Engineering: Versions

[Eric Rostetter]

Quoting Tim Gorter <email at teletechnics.com>:

> consolidate the release numbers so that it seems more logical that
> version 5 of one thing should work with version 5 of another thing. So

Which is why I run Windows XP with Office 2000 with Encarta 99 and
IE 6.0?  Confusing?  Well, sometime MS uses the year, other times a
name, sometime a number.  Now that's confusing.  But there is no need
to run Office XP just because you run Windows XP.  Most users don't
seem confused by this, probably because they have to *pay* for the
software, so they only upgrade the parts they need to.

Same works for lots of other software...

> all modules in RELENG_2 should work with all other related RELENG_2
> releases. Hey, and if a RELENG_3 module works with a RELENG_2 Horde,
> lucky module!!

So if we release a new module for Horde 4.x, then it must be called
something 4.x.  Now the poor user using Horde 3.x will write in "where
is version 1/2/3 of module something?  I can't find them anywhere!"
Or they will say "for version 4 of something you think it would be more
stable/mature/feature-rich!  It must have been around for a long time
to have 4 versions out, so the bugs should be fixed by now!".

> I also often still think, ¿is it Horde 3 that works with IMP 2 or the
> other way around? (I know IMP was there first so it has the higher
> release number) but for simplicity and to stop answering the question
> on the list all the time, why not make them the same release number.

Because, while I'm not against that, I don't think it will decrease the
number of questions we get.  Heck, we get minor version questions still
"I'm running Horde 2.2.3 and IMP 3.1.  I want to upgrade to IMP 3.2.
Do I need to upgrade Horde to 2.2.4 to do that?"

> The name is okay for me RELENG - RELease ENGineering - right? HEAD
> isn't RELENG, could be called something else like DEVelopment (like
> the list name..), but I like HEAD too.

But most people don't know what HEAD is.  I think we cause more problems
independent of the naming scheme.  For example, our snapshots are called
(IIRC) module-date.tar.gz and module-RELENG-date.tar.gz which causes
confusion.  They should be something more like module-HEAD-date.tar.gz
and module-RELENG-date.tar.gz or similar.

> my 2 pence.
> tim.

My factional penny.

--
Eric Rostetter
The Department of Physics
The University of Texas at Austin

Why get even? Get odd!