Lantz Rowland wrote:
> 
> 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.

Maybe not, but it is somewhat (unnecessarily) more complicated than the current scheme, which is simply that any version with an "alpha" after it is a development/testpilot release.  And I think referring to a development version as "alpha" is probably more universally recognized than an even/odd numbering scheme.

Also, Bruce is the maintainer of the ftp site, but Squeak Central is ultimately in charge of what they want to name the versions of Squeak, so you'd have to convince them to use the even/odd scheme, too.

> 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.

The current scheme does an excellent job of addressing this, IMHO, since you have to dig a bit to find a 3.1alpha directory, but it's easy to find the current 3.0 production release.

I guess your concern is that it's currently a bit too difficult for someone to find the development (alpha) release?  I think it should be somewhat hidden, although I suppose it could be made slightly less hidden by renaming the unstable-testPilot directory to unstable-3.1alpha or something like that.  (Although I wouldn't mind leaving it the way it is, either.)

Some of your descriptive text describing development versions versus production versions might be useful in a readme somewhere, though.

- Doug Way
  dway at riskmetrics.com



> 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/>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------