Re: [boost] Breaking existing libraries

Subject: Re: [boost] Breaking existing libraries
From: joaquin_at_[hidden]
Date: 2008-11-21 04:47:03

Vladimir Prus escribió:
> joaquin_at_[hidden] wrote:
>
>   
>> Markus Werle escribió:
>>     
>>> But let us go back on the we-do-not-pay-for-it path:
>>> IMHO it is a severe error of your development process that you do not
>>> check your code with new versions of all compilers and all libraries on a
>>> *regular* basis. In management parlance: your risk management is defective.
>>> It always is a good idea to use the svn repo of boost and the beta version
>>> of the next compiler just to see the breaking changes early enough, which gives
>>> everyone plenty of time to react.
>>>   
>>>       
>> On this particular point, I find that beta periods usually gather very
>> little
>> feedback from actual users of the code, and it is later in time when people
>> begin to complain about breaking changes (I'm meaning unintentional breaking
>> changes here). Somehow the Boost *users* community seems not to be
>> very involved in the release process, and we should find ways to press
>> them to
>> test betas more thouroughly than it's being done currently. Maybe we can
>> begin by proactively sending announce mails to the companies in the
>> "Who's using Boost" entry whenever a beta period begins; we'd need a
>> contacts list to do that.
>>     
>
> Do you think it will work? You basically want users to grab new Boost,
> build it, update their source code, and do automatic and manual QA. And
> all this during 2-weeks window. And further, if user runs into a bug
> he has to fix it, or discuss with Boost developers, and this means maintaining
> two branches of the code, which the associated overhead.
>   

What's the purpose of having a beta then if not to let users test the 
code before
the final release? If two weeks is too little time maybe we should 
consider extending it,
but undergoing a beta period without actually expecting to receive 
users' feedback
makes no sense to me.

Joaquín M López Muñoz
Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo