Re: Plans for gnuplot version 5

[Juhász P. <pet...@gm...>]

On Thu, 2014-03-06 at 13:52 -0800, Ethan A Merritt wrote:
> On Thursday, 06 March, 2014 21:31:00 Juhász Péter wrote:
> > On Wed, 2014-03-05 at 15:02 -0800, Ethan A Merritt wrote:
> 
> > > > Also, may ask what is your proposed timeline for 5.0?
> > > 
> > > That's what I'm trying to determine.
> > 
> > OK, I rephrase the question: what's your latest preferred date for the
> > final release? End of this year perhaps?
> > I think it would be beneficial if you set a tentative date because then
> > potential contributors would be able to gauge whether their proposed new
> > features are plausible within that timeframe.
> > 
> > Peter
> 
> Remember that new features per se do not have to go in before version 5, 
> only features that would be incompatible with past syntax or data formats.
> 
> If the list of "must change" items is empty, then I propose to put out
> an rc1 snapshot by the end of March.
> 
> If the list is non-empty, the rc1 snapshot would go out as soon as the
> list is clear again.
> 
> I expect there will be an rc2 either very soon after that if some major
> but fixable defect is spotted (this has happened before) otherwise
> after 3 months or so of testing and hopefully feedback.
> 
> My crystal ball is hazy about where that puts the final release.
> I hope well before the end of the year.
> 

[...snip explanation about translation of strings...]

> 
> 	Ethan
> 


Thanks for the detailed and clear answer.

There is one more point I'd like to raise:
there have been much talk about new features and small, incompatible
changes, but perhaps a new major release would be a good time to look at
the state of the program from a different perspective: find and fix
longstanding bugs, go through the featureset and check for
inconsistencies and irregularities, check code quality and refactor
where needed.
Of course I'm aware that you and others have been doing such work, and
it is much appreciated. But perhaps in anticipation of the new release,
it would be better to focus effort on tasks of these nature, even at the
expense of new features. One might argue that gnuplot has enough
features as it is.

Peter