[pLog-svn] r6088 - plog/branches/lifetype-1.2/class/security

[Oscar Renalias]

Excellent feedback and nice discussion so far. We appreciate all
feedback and support :-)

I would agree that we usually end up making too many releases of the
same stable branch (we reached .6 in the 1.1 branch and we're about to
reach the same milestone-release in the 1.2 one...) but sometimes it
takes a while to get software right so I see that maintenance releases
are necessary. If you think about it, Jon just tracked down and fixed
a bug that had been haunting some of us since probably even 1.1, and I
think that is good that we share these corrections with everyone as
often as it takes.

We could consider making regular releases at pre-defined intervals, at
let's say every 2-3 months for maintenance releases and every 18-24
months for major ones but considering that LT is just a "hobby" for
which sometimes we don't have enough time, it would be difficult to
stick to those. Instead, we work on it when we can and make the
releases whenever we think they're ready.

But I will agree with you that sometimes we haven't been very strict
and we have modified core API methods and classes to fix issues during
maintenance releases, which seems to be one of your concerns. I assume
that if we ensured that the API is 'frozen' during the whole duration
of the branch that would satisfy cases like yours (or communicated the
changes clearly enough providing sound reasoning for them)? If so, we
can consider being more strict and rigorous from now on.

Now about providing support for older stable releases when a new main
version has been released, I agree that we were a bit too harsh with
the 1.1->1.2 transition. For the next major release (2.0), we should
maybe think of supporting 1.2 until 2.0.3 is out or so, as .3 is
usually the time when most of the major issues with the new branch
have been sorted out. But supporting it much further than that is
quite difficult, as our resources are pretty limited and time used to
support a previous release is time not used in working on the newest
one unless we adopt a model similar to the Linux kernel, where there's
one person specifically allocated to supporting 2.4 while 2.6 is being
developed. We would only need one additional developer to step forward
and take that role... Anyone interested? :-)

Hopefully we adressed your concerns, but please feel free to continue
sharing your feedback with us.

Oscar

On Jan 3, 2008 12:10 AM, Jon Daley <plogworld at jon.limedaley.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 2 Jan 2008, Andy wrote:
> > I made a $5 donation a couple months ago:
> > http://myspew.com/blog/mysides-spew/software/2007/10/02/just-a-little-monetary-support-shows-appreciation
> >
> > That's all I could afford, but I hope it showed my appreciation.
>         That's great.  I don't get the notifications, so maybe there is
> more money in there than there used to be.  As a vendor, I donate 10% of
> my revenues that get referred from lifetype.  Last year, that only meant
> free hosting for LifeType, but this year, I think it will be a bunch -
> I'll have to look at the numbers.
>
> > I disagree with you.  If the project were to end, I have two years of PHP
> > 4 experience, among other associates.  I hope that never happens.  All of
> > you are amazing, and if their is anything more I can do to help, please
> > ask.
>         I am not expecting the project to end, but I do expect support for
> the older versions to end as we go along.  I don't think it would be worth
> your time putting lots of effort into supporting old versions, since the
> bugs get fixed in newer releases, etc.
>         I think we are going to get a more designed task list for 2.0
> soon, and so people can do stuff as they can, so feel free to jump in.
>
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