Re: [Exim] Exim 4.21 and human nature

On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 16:29:18 +0100 (BST) Philip wrote:

> When I put together an Exim snapshot and ask for testers, a few people
> seem to try it out.
> If I do the same thing, but call it a new release, the world piles in,
> and finds the bugs.

It's possibly because "snapshot", rightly or wrongly, psychologically
carries a kind of 'unstable' implication which probably puts people off.
Perhaps what you should consider is this:

- interim releases ("you asked for this feature, I think this is a good
implementation of it, try it out, but there may be more to come before
the next release") are called snapshots as at present

- once you think you've reached a more stable, release-ish stage, you do a
'release candidate', with the rationale of "all the features which
will be in the next release are now in, and have undergone at least some
testing. If nobody finds any bugs, this will be the next release"

The idea, obviously, is that the snapshots are tested by anyone who's
tracking a particular feature/WishList item and anyone else interested,
but the RC is aimed at a wider audience to try to track down those niggles
before a full "release".

It won't solve the problem completely, but might just help a little.


Tim