Re: [boost] [release] Boost 1.66.0 Release Candidate 2

Subject: Re: [boost] [release] Boost 1.66.0 Release Candidate 2
From: Stephan T. Lavavej (stl_at_[hidden])
Date: 2017-12-18 19:33:17

[Gavin Lambert]
> This does not seem like the first time a new MSVC release occurred just days
> prior to a Boost release, causing consternation amongst people who expected
> the latter to work with the former.

> Or perhaps people should react more pro-actively to the preview releases

Yes, that would be wise.

> (a common theme I've heard posted here is to ignore preview releases because things will be different in the final release)?

That is unwise guidance.

Here's a general description of how our releases work (no specific promises about the future):

* By the time that update N ships (e.g. 15.5), update N + 1 (e.g. 15.6) appears in the preview channel around the same time.

* To achieve that, update N + 1 actually branched for release a while ago, and active development (master) is flowing into a later update.

* Fixes from master are backported to the Preview branch, but there's a process involving a fair amount of scrutiny and paperwork, ensuring that only important fixes are backported.

* While the details vary, new features stop appearing in Previews early on; e.g. it is possible for features to appear between Preview 1 and Preview 2 of an update (as will be the case for 15.6) but later previews are even less likely to contain new features and by the time that several Previews have come out, it is in a highly locked down state and significant changes are unlikely.

To summarize: don't ignore Preview releases. Use them for testing. At most you can skip Preview 1 of each update if you like, but don't ignore any others.

STL