From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/34258 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Vyatcheslav Yatskovsky Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: ConTeXt versioning model critique Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 14:29:04 +0300 Message-ID: <823522955.20070414142904@gmail.com> References: Reply-To: Yatskovsky , mailing list for ConTeXt users NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1176550149 30549 80.91.229.12 (14 Apr 2007 11:29:09 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 11:29:09 +0000 (UTC) To: "ntg-context-request@ntg.nl" Original-X-From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Sat Apr 14 13:29:02 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl ([131.211.172.88] helo=ronja.ntg.nl) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1HcgR9-0001hq-Re for gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org; Sat, 14 Apr 2007 13:28:59 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4BFA31FFC6; Sat, 14 Apr 2007 13:28:58 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 04665-03; Sat, 14 Apr 2007 13:28:50 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0E2861FFC2; Sat, 14 Apr 2007 13:28:50 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1FEDC1FFC2 for ; Sat, 14 Apr 2007 13:28:49 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 04664-03-5 for ; Sat, 14 Apr 2007 13:28:46 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ug-out-1314.google.com (ug-out-1314.google.com [66.249.92.173]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3DA641FFBF for ; Sat, 14 Apr 2007 13:28:46 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: by ug-out-1314.google.com with SMTP id m2so647509uge for ; Sat, 14 Apr 2007 04:28:46 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by 10.67.115.11 with SMTP id s11mr409732ugm.1176550126018; Sat, 14 Apr 2007 04:28:46 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: from penitencely-outset.volia.net ( [77.123.164.78]) by mx.google.com with ESMTP id e8sm4220205muf.2007.04.14.04.28.43; Sat, 14 Apr 2007 04:28:43 -0700 (PDT) X-Mailer: The Bat! (v3.98.4) Professional X-Priority: 3 (Normal) In-Reply-To: X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl X-BeenThere: ntg-context@ntg.nl X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9 Precedence: list List-Id: mailing list for ConTeXt users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Errors-To: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:34258 Archived-At: Dear Patrtic, > ... ConTeXt would probably stabilize, which IMHO is not a good thing. > One thing I really love ConTeXt for is the speed new techniques are > adopted (pdf features, luatex,...) One day we might have a ConTeXt > MKII book for those who are afraid of swithing to pdftex2. ConTeXt should be eventually stabilized so that someone can make some use of it. But, there is a way for rapid adopting of new techniques too. My experience of using open-source products (I'm best familiar with Moodle) suggest that there should be overlapping cycles in development: 1. Allocate new version number and start implementing new features. Many things are broken at the moment and the version becomes unusable for production purposes. 2. Stabilize this version and make definite release (number x.x.). Now it can be used for production. 3. Continue resolve bugs in this version AND perform Step 1 IN PARALLEL. Moodle follows this model and I always wandered how smooth it was to migrate between releases. Everything is completely predictable. Please, look at http://download.moodle.org/ to get the idea of their versioning. I think ConTeXt needs similar versioning model badly. Now it has rather naive model (release dates) that doesn't help in deciding about stability at all. -- Best regards, Vyatcheslav Yatskovsky