[Koha-devel] Koha numbering

[Mathieu Saby]

Hello
Maybe you will not agree with me, but here is my *personal *opinion 
about release rythm : 6 month between each "major" release seems quite a 
short delay.
In France we have libraries using 3.10 (I think only my library for the 
moment), 3.8, probably 3.6, 3.2 (with a lot of local changes).
In some monthes, we will have libraries using 3.12, 3.10, 3.8 etc

For a library a 6 month rythm means updating 2 times Koha each year. 
Before and after each change, you need to test the new version, to train 
colleagues, to update documentation, to signal new bugs to your vendor 
if you have one... You can do that if you have a big team, and the help 
of a vendor. This is not the case of all libraries...
It is also a problem for internationalization : translation teams need 
to maintain projects for 3 or 4 versions. With Pootle, it is not 
possible (how many languages with 100% strings translated for 3.10, 3.8 
and 3.6 ???). Even with an other system it will be very difficult and 
will take a lot of time.
Finally, in terms of development : with the current system, we work on 
enhancements approximatly 4 months (before feature freeze) for each 
version. So 8 month in a year. With a rythm of a year, we could work for 
example 9 months on enhancements, and 3 on bugfixes and translations.


Regards,
M. Saby
Rennes 2 university


Le 07/04/2013 02:43, Chris Cormack a écrit :
>
> Paul <paul.a at aandc.org> wrote:
>
>> At 12:15 AM 4/7/2013 +0200, Paul Poulain wrote:
>> [snip]
>>> The poll would have the following options :
>>>   * keep 3. "forever"
>>>   * keep the 3. until a major functional change is made, like
>> introducing
>>> a new search engine. The numbering change is decided by the Release
>> Manager.
>>>   * drop the 3. and use 14.0, 14.1, 14.2, 16.0, 16.1,...
>>>   * adopt a numbering style with YYYY-MM (2013-11, 2014-05,
>> 2014-11,...)
>>> QUESTION TO THIS LIST, before the poll: for the YYY-MM style, how to
>>> number the maintaince releases ?
>> [Based on Ubuntu, clearly announced ahead of time, predictable for
>> planning
>> purposes in the long term] the year/months are on a six month cycle
>> April/October: 12.04(LTS), 12.10, 13.04, 13.10, 14.04(LTS), 14.10 ...
>> etc.
>> [And for anyone wanting to be at the cutting edge there are beta and
>> alphas
>> leading up to the releases.]
>>
>> There are occasional "maintenance" releases in between, at least for
>> the
>> LTS releases -- e.g. at the moment, a year after 12.04 there is a
>> 12.04.2(LTS) -- just a simple "dot digit" on the end, like Koha. But
>> it's
>> 12.04 plus security patches only (for the server edition) with no
>> "enhancements."
>>
>> How many libraries using Koha really look at "new releases" every month
>> or
>> so? We are based on 3.8.5 which was state of the art when I put it into
>>
>> production six months ago. Koha is up to what? 3.8.11 plus 3.10.4 plus
>> 3.12
>> beta plus 3.14 in the offing. And my system isn't even a "current
>> stable
>> release" any more ...
>>
>> Maybe the *numbering* of releases is less important than the *number*
>> of
>> releases? Would more time for testing and Q.A. lead to a more stable
>> platform, say on a six monthly basis? Would it tempt more libraries to
>> examine enhancements? ... and please, these are just questions,
>> certainly
>> not criticism.
> We only ever release enhancements every 6 months.  The monthly releases are purely bug fixes.  What you describe is what we do, 6 monthly feature releases. And yes 3.8.11 is 3.8.5 plus 6 months of bugfixes.  As 3.8.5 was 3.8.0 plus 5 months of bug fix releases.
>
> Maybe you have just misunderstood the current system.
>
> Chris
>> Best - Paul
>>
>> ---
>> Maritime heritage and history, preservation and conservation,
>> research and education through the written word and the arts.
>> <http://NavalMarineArchive.com> and <http://UltraMarine.ca>
>>
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-- 
Mathieu Saby
Service d'Informatique Documentaire
Service Commun de Documentation
Université Rennes 2
Téléphone : 02 99 14 12 65
Courriel : mathieu.saby at univ-rennes2.fr

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