Re: [boost] [filesystem][xpressive] Hotfix patches available for 1.36.0

From: Eric Niebler (eric_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-08-29 18:34:03

Mat Marcus wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 29, 2008 at 1:36 PM, Eric Niebler <eric_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>> Michael Marcin wrote:
>>> If the fixes are not critical enough to justify making a point release
>>> than they should wait until the next release.
>> So you're against hotfixes. <shrug> I would say, take the hotfix if you are
>> experiencing the problem addressed by the hotfix. Otherwise, wait for the
>> next release.
> 
> For some of us the answer is not <shrug>. 

That wasn't my answer. See above.

> Are hotfixes really the way
> forward? Not to pick on filesystem, threads or xpressive, but hotfixes
> are a bit difficult to manage in a coporate environment. It's hard
> enough to get boost accepted/updated without having to defend against
> people who argue that it's too risky to use boost due to "inadequate
> quality control" e.g. "boost 1.35.0 didn't work out of the box
> (windows thread bugs, filesystem compilation errors, etc.), boost
> 1.36.0 doesn't work out of the box

1.36.0 works out of the box. But I get your point.

> , and there are no dot-releases
> planned". It really helps if there is a perception of stable, high
> quality, official, numbered releases.

Understood. You want point releases. We don't have the resources right 
now. We are busy flushing the bugs out of a new release process that 
should give us quarterly releases. This is in response to feedback such 
as yours. Beman has said on this list that the issue of point releases 
will be reconsidered once we are meeting our quarterly release schedule. 
In the mean time, corporate users of Boost have a few options: (1) 
ignore hotfixes, (2) pay for support, (3) consider donating the testing 
resources we would need to produce point releases.

In the future, I could imagine staggered releases ... something like a 3 
month full release cycle, followed by 1 or 2 months to put out a point 
release. With extra resources, these two could happen in parallel, of 
course.

-- 
Eric Niebler
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com