Re: [AD] Feature-freeze?

[Evert G. <eg...@dd...>]

On 25 Mar 2010, at 9:37 , Thomas Fjellstrom wrote:
> I'd just like to point out that the regular WIPs have already drawn interest 
> from a couple/few people so far to work on patches. If the pace isn't kept 
> up, they will probably just disappear.

That's a good reason to make regular releases. I don't think it's a good reason to bump the *major* version number too often though. ;)
As you say, the version number basically becomes meaningless in that case.

I do understand the point-of-view of not caring too much about release versions or minor/major version numbers: when I started using Allegro, I used 3.11. I started using the 3.9 WIP series when DOS became a bit too annoying to use and updated to new releases every now and then. When I was using 4.2 I had a release version installed for my hobby programming and Allegro CVS for doing Allegro development.
These days I just use current SVN for everything and it's fine. I would probably personally continue to use SVN rather than 5.0 release. But me ten years ago wouldn't and I think that holds for most users.

As to new people coming in, I sure hope we gain a few more when 5.0 has been released properly and picks up some interest. I suspect we will, but we need to make it clear that people who "would like to help but don't think they know enough" can already contribute. Hell, if I need to implement something on OS X, I spend an hour reading Apple's on-line reference guide and doing trial-and-error because I don't know (up front) how things work. Anyone who wants to help out can do essentially the same thing easily.
I anticipate a precipitous and long-term drop in my free time somewhere in or after late August.

Evert