Release Schedules and Feedback on Fixes

[Robert Brenstein]

>On 12/06/12 1:59 PM, "Robert Brenstein" <rjb at robelko.com> wrote:
>
>Hi Robert,
>
>>  Lynn and Ruslan,
>>
>>  Is there any hope that Paradigma starts branching Valentina releases?
>>  With 2.6 perceived as a strong base, it may be the right time to
>>  consider seriously the introduction of branching into Valentina's
>>  development process.
>
>We agree totally.
>We will spend time and make efforts to learn deeply how to use CVS branches.

This would be really great. Head-only (single-branch) development is 
fine for simple products which Valentina is not. Using branching is 
not that complicated once you wrap your head around it, and as I 
wrote in the other email, it can benefit both you and us in a number 
of ways.

>  > This relentless push forward by mixing bug fixes and implementing new
>>  features (introducing new bugs and breaking working code in the
>>  process) may be leaving some, and I suspect mot so few, users behind,
>
>I have told in prev letter.
>
>In BIG CONTRAST to v1, now we have big set of regression tests.
>While we add new feature, we always get some tests broken,
>And then we spend as many time as required to fix all back.
>Only after this we start make even beta builds.

It is great that you do these tests and I know they are extremely 
helpful for the development, but they test only what you programmed 
to test. The fact is that bugs are still found after this testing.

When was the last release that was deemed truly stable and without 
known bugs in new or old code? If you check release notes, each 
successive release has multiple bug fixes and improvements/features 
added.

As somebody else said, it is the perception of bugs that can be more 
damaging than the bugs themselves. And if there is a perception that 
database files are getting corrupted upon usage, it is even more 
serious problem (even if ultimately the mistake lies with Valentina 
developer not Valentina itself).

>  > some even abandoning Valentina altogether. Each time I try to keep up
>>  with the new releases of Valentina, I feel like I am in a rat race,
>>  spending more time dealing with Valentina than my products since, at
>>  least in my case, I need to sync Valentina on at least 4-5 computers.
>
>Robert, as I know you do not use Valentina 2 at all.
>Am I right ?

Well, that is not quite right. I haven't officially upgraded to v2 
since my main program still runs with V1. With 1.9.6 not even 1.9.11, 
so I'd need to make a double jump to switch it to v2. As things are, 
it is a big effort to just keep up with implementing features needed 
by the users. At the same time, I tried to keep tabs on v2 progress 
in the demo mode for quite a while since I have also been working on 
a new product for both v1 and v2 last several months. You may recall 
me being fairly active with testing some earlier releases. But I 
could not keep up. I want to catch up again, although my lurking on 
Valentina lists does not make me confident enough to switch fully to 
V2 yet.

Robert