Re: [boost] [release management] Drop .gz and .zip release packaging?

Subject: Re: [boost] [release management] Drop .gz and .zip release packaging?
From: Jon Biggar (jon_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-10-23 11:50:43

Beman Dawes wrote:
> Boost releases are currently packaged four ways.
> 
> With CR/NL line endings:
> 
>     boost_1_37_0_beta1.7z     27,340,204
>     boost_1_37_0_beta1.zip    57,017,457
> 
> With NL line endings:
> 
>     boost_1_37_0_beta1.tar.bz2     29,494,538
>     boost_1_37_0_beta1.tar.gz       36,436,716
> 
> I'd like to drop the .zip and .gz packages, starting with release 
> 1.38.0. The primary motivation is a personal one; as release manager I 
> do a lot of FTP transfers and would like to spend less time waiting for 
> the big .zip and .gz packages to upload/download.
> 
> The problem I see is that CR/NL users still download .zip files twice as 
> often as .7z, and NL users still download about as many .gz packages as 
> bz2.

I think this is a premature optimization.  Sure it saves you some time, 
but how much extra time does it cost a user who has to find bz2 or 7z 
decompression binaries, install them and figure out how to use them? 
When multiplied by the number of users who might be in that situation, 
there's more time saved overall if you spend a bit more of yours.

-- 
Jon Biggar
jon_at_[hidden]
jon_at_[hidden]