At 10:38 am 5/1/01, Bruce ONeel wrote:
>Thanks!  It's in  the 3.0/unstableTestpilot directory...

Umm Bruce ... ,

While I understand the thought behind the directory name and your hiding it 
like this, I disagree with inventing another complication that will require 
explanations.

The technique of using Integers for the Major Version number (1.x, 2.x, 
3.x)  with an even decimal for the Production Release number (3.0, 3.2, 3.4 
... 4.0, 4.2 ...) and an odd decimal for the following development (aka 
TestPilot) Release number (3.1, 3.3 ...) ,that gets created at the very 
same instant is not a hard concept to describe.

The primary concern, seems to be that a person with no prior knowledge of 
Squeak Release numbers, will discover the Ftp site and incorrectly assume 
that since release 3.1 is greater than release 3.0, that is the release 
they should get.

What I suggest is this. Create a folder for Squeak 3.2 right now . Put a 
ReadMe.txt document in the 3.2 folder to explain the Squeak Revision number 
and reference our documentation to those who read it.  I've taken one shot 
at an explanation below that you and the list (perhaps we have a Tech 
Writer) can refactor and rephrase.

Having a folder for the next production Release number will also gives us a 
place to store documents about what we expect (hope) will be production 
quality stable in that release, or at least keep track the bookie odds. For 
example, even money on  eToys and OmniUser with Block Closures a long shot 
but looking pretty good at the moment.

With a folder for 3.2 in the Ftp directory there is no issue in creating a 
folder for Release 3.1 and I would urge that the folder name be 
simply  '3.1'  without any other suffix. I believe that the contents of 
your new 'unstableTestpilot' folder should be moved to the 3.1/ folder, 
since they have nothing at all to do with the Squeak 3.0 production 
release, and the 'unstableTestpilot' folder be removed completely from the 
Ftp site.

Cheers,
Lantz

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
   === Squeak Release Numbers - May 2001 ===

         * - 3.2 - Future Stable Production Release (Summer 2001 ?)
         * - 3.1 - Current Rapid Development Release (4-Feb-2001)
         * - 3.0 - Current Stable Production Release (4-Feb-2001)
         * - 2.8 - Old Production Release

Squeak 3.2 will be the next stable production Release after Squeak 3.0, and 
it should be ready during the summer of 2001.

Squeak 3.0 is the current stable production Release. The Squeak 3.0 image 
was created on Feb 4th, 2001 at which point it succeeded  Squeak 2.8 as the 
stable production release. Squeak 3.0 is the release you should use to use 
to learn the Squeak dialect of Smalltalk or to build new production 
objects. This is the first production release with the Morphic Interface 
considered to be production quality. The update stream of ChangeSets for 
Release 3.0 is very slow, low volume and are constrained to fixing 
discovered bugs and production quality changes.

Squeak Release 3.1 is the active rapidly changing Squeak developers Release 
sometimes referred to as the "Test Pilot Release". The update stream [ 
raging river ] of ChangeSets for Release 3.1 is rapid, high volume and 
includes some experimental concepts that may not be considered production 
quality until release 3.4 if ever. It is the way to try and work with what 
new features of Squeak that will be coming in the next production release 
Squeak 3.2 and beyond that you may want to use to enhance your current 
production 3.0 Classes. It is also the place to enhance the SUnit tests for 
your production 3.0 Classes to prove that they will be ready for the Squeak 
3.2 production Release.

Squeak Release 3.2 does not yet exist. It is what the development Release 
3.1 is testing and working towards. Remember that a Squeak Image is like a 
photograph and that at the same time the 3.1 image is "photographed" to 
create the 3.2 stable production release image a new 3.3 release will also 
be created for those Squeak developers and all the active development in 
3.1 will stop and moves to the active development 3.3 release.

For those of you who followed this transition the last time as Squeak 2.9 
was used to create Squeak 3.0 and Squeak 3.1 during Feb 2001, either live 
on the Squeak List or by reading the Archives please remember two things 
that were unique and very special about the 2.9 development release.

First, the Squeak 2.9 release was used to create, test and prove the major, 
fundamental, structural changes in what and how Squeak stores itself in 
it's image and changes files and laid the foundation for being able to 
distribute projects. Those major foundation type of changes are the reasons 
for the Version Number change from 2.x to 3.x and they are also the reasons 
that there never was, and never will be a Squeak 2.10 release.  It is also 
the reason why the first few months of development of Squeak 2.9 was ..., 
exciting, even for experienced "Test Pilots" and why so much time was spent 
in release 2.9 development.

Second, there was an external hard deadline on finalizing the Squeak 3.0 
image in Feb 2001 so that it could be published on the Compact Disk with 
Mark's new book about Squeak 3.0. The normally high volume of ChangeSets in 
a developer release went into a Gold Rush overdrive from Dec 2000 to Feb 
2001 with the efforts to make both the foundation for 3.x and the Release 
of Squeak 3.0 as complete and solid as possible. That pace is also the 
primary reason that the Squeak 3.0 image from the 4th of February has a 
small set of changes issued in February after the image snapshot was taken. 
The transition to Squeak 3.2 should be a lot calmer.

Lantz

  = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =



--
   Lantz Rowland <lantz at aabysgallery.com>  PgpKey: 0x67E5DFA5
   Squeakers doIt, all the time!
   zL - Lantz's Scriptible Web <http://Lantz.EditThisPage.com/>
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