Why so many versions?

[Iris]

btw, I redesigned to better fit with the rest of Wesnoth's smilies.

Yeah, with a fixed whiteish background?

Anyway, no, thanks. We have enough smileys already.

(Enough off-topicness already?)

[Zarel]

Yeah, with a fixed whiteish background?

I didn't notice the white background until after I posted, after which I fixed it.

Anyway, no, thanks. We have enough smileys already.

In case this was directed at me: I wasn't suggesting for it to be added to the list; merely as a suggestion to Gambit to use mine in the future, since it fits in with the others better.

In case this was directed at Gambit: Disregard this reply.

[pauxlo]

What I said was only bug fixes are added to the even number stable branch. The odd numbered development branch gets everything that you mentioned.

That is the point of stable. That's where it gets its name. It's pretty much locked down. It doesn't get new things. But because it doesn't get new things, it also doesn't get new bugs.

And then the development version gets its name because it does get the new things. It is the "beta" as people keep calling it. It is like the proving ground. It's where they throw new things to iron them out before they pass them along to the stable.

A little addition: Most (at least the first) odd (development) versions are actually not "beta", but better called alpha. Beta versions come after most features for the next stable are finished, there is a freeze of strings (= the translators can work without worrying to have to repeat work before the stable), and work is focused on ironing out most bugs (so you don't have to get lots of bugfixing "stable" releases after) (and finishing bits of art improvements and such stuff). (Because of this "feature freeze" for example the new giant rat was not added to mainline (only to the campaign), but will be added in 1.9.)

"1.8 Beta" means about "this is quite similar to the finished 1.8 we will ship, so please try this and report any bugs so we can fix them before. You also may want to start updating your UMC so it will work on 1.8 when that comes out."

This is the cause that in the line 1.6 -> 1.7.0 -> 1.7.1 -> ... -> 1.7.7 were lots more of new features (and entries in the changelog) than after 1.7.7 (the first "1.8 beta") until now (1.7.12) (and until the 1.8 release).

And it is not that "things are tried out in beta and then passed to stable", but the program which was first alpha, and is now beta, will be the new stable:

Code: Select all

        (RC)   (stable)                                     (stable)
...--> 1.5.14 --> 1.6 --> 1.7.0 --> ... --> 1.7.12 --> ... --> 1.8 --> 1.9.0 --> 1.9.1 --> ...
(beta)             |     (alpha)          (now: beta)           |      (alpha)
                   V                                            V
                  1.6.1 --> ... --> 1.6.5                      1.8.1 --> 1.8.2 --> ...
                  (stable)                                     (stable)

[Euthanatos93]

Adding to what Gambit and pauxlo said, where a version number is formatted as: X.Y.Z.Z2; Y is indicative of development or stable as Gambit described. Even are stable and odds are developmental. X increasing represents a major overhaul of the application itself and Z represents minor changes and even can sometimes be subdivided into Z2 where Z2 increments typically represent bugfixes to changes made at Z increments.

[Zarel]

Well, only some projects follow that versioning scheme. The only ones I know of that do are the Linux Kernel and Wesnoth.

Warzone follows a fairly standard scheme.

Code: Select all

                                   /-> 2.3 alphas -> 2.3 betas -> 2.3 RCs -> 2.3.0 -> 2.3.1 -> etc
trunk ---------------------> trunk --->
      \-> 2.2 alphas -> 2.2 betas -> 2.2 RCs -> 2.2.0 -> 2.2.1 -> etc

[Kess]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_versioning

[m0ta]

Well, only some projects follow that versioning scheme. The only ones I know of that do are the Linux Kernel and Wesnoth.

This is not true for quite some time now. Linux used to use the even-odd-system for stable and unstable, but this is history since 2.6.

[Euthanatos93]

Well, only some projects follow that versioning scheme. The only ones I know of that do are the Linux Kernel and Wesnoth.

This is not true for quite some time now. Linux used to use the even-odd-system for stable and unstable, but this is history since 2.6.

That's not really true either. 2.6 is stable. The version number for the linux kernel has been added to reflect the way the work is being conducted on it.

[Insinuator]

So, obviously, not many people mind all the "betas". I guess the real question becomes: when is 1.8 going to come out?

[AI]

IIRWIIR

[Gambit]

So, obviously, not many people mind all the "betas". I guess the real question becomes: when is 1.8 going to come out?

Soon.

17 confirmed, unfixed, bugs in the bugtracker right now. Though there are many more gamebreakers that aren't confirmed yet. Also I just recently discovered the bug tracker so I have no idea if the number of bugs even has bearing on the release schedule (just thought a number would comfort you. ).

[AI]

You also want to count the bugs with status 'none' or 'in progress'. Or you could just check the topic in #wesnoth-dev.
Besides important bugs however, the real blocker is the MP lobby.