[Lazarus] Linux Journal article

[Mattias Gaertner]

On Thu, 6 Aug 2009 11:09:41 -0500
Andrew Brunner <andrew.t.brunner at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 9:30 AM, Mattias
> Gaertner<nc-gaertnma at netcologne.de> wrote:
> >
> > All bugs in the 0.9.28 section stops the release of 0.9.28. They are
> > all stop-release bugs.
> 
> I am going to say this for the benefit of all when I say that this
> should not be the case.  Taking months if not years between releases
> makes this project look untouched, outdated, and dead.  I for one
> think it's come far enough to have quarterly releases.

All wish that we release more often.
But a release is a lot of work. 

Speaking for myself: I had far less time in the last few months.

 
> >> I see a "Major" tag assigned to a scroll key getting stuck.  To me,
> >> this is not "Stop-Release" kind of bug but it is listed as a Major
> >> flaw.  While this flaw was marked as "Major" it should never be
> >> flagged as a "Stop-Release" flag.
> >
> > It's a pretty annoying bug, but luckily it appears only on few
> > machines. So the "Major" depends on pov.
> 
> No.  I disagree.  It should not stop the release at all.  Point of
> views are not relavent in a "Stop-Release" flag.  If adopted, we
> should come up with a specific criteria for such a flag.  Data
> corruption would be primary candidate - or Test if you will.

The POV is about 'Minor' or 'Major' and is merely an indicator.
The release tags are set by the developers, when they think a bug is
grave enough.

About this particular bug:
There were several tries to fix this bug. One of them made it better
for some users and worse for others. Under ubuntu switching
to another app and back made the IDE mad. You
used a short cut or clicked somewhere and something completely
different happened. For short-cut junkies this resulted even in
data loss. After some more fixes this now only happens on a few systems
and less worse.
That's why it is major.
Of course for the majority this bug was never a problem.


> >> Q: Out of all outstanding bugs... How many would be "Stop-Release"
> >> flagged ?
> >
> > All.
> > If a bug's annoyance level can be lowered far enough or if no good
> > fix can be found, then it can be moved to the next version.
> 
> I think that a work in progress (Agile) with quarterly release
> schedules would certainly benefit the project as far as repeat
> visitors and prospective contributors.

True.
OTOH:
Releases with regressions will make the existing users unhappy.


Mattias