From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Robert J. Chassell" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: CVS is the `released version' Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 02:00:15 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: <877irhn4yh.fsf@mid.thomas-huehn.de> Reply-To: bob@rattlesnake.com NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1178762450 4918 80.91.229.12 (10 May 2007 02:00:50 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 02:00:50 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu May 10 04:00:41 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1HlxxR-0001Bv-Al for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 10 May 2007 04:00:41 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Hly4g-0000sI-SM for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 09 May 2007 22:08:10 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Hly4d-0000mR-FN for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 May 2007 22:08:07 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Hly4c-0000kv-P4 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 May 2007 22:08:06 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Hly4c-0000kO-HB for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 May 2007 22:08:06 -0400 Original-Received: from cpe-69-205-32-54.nycap.res.rr.com ([69.205.32.54] helo=rattlesnake.com) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1HlxxM-0006Lv-0w for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 May 2007 22:00:36 -0400 Original-Received: by rattlesnake.com via sendmail from stdin id (Debian Smail3.2.0.115) Thu, 10 May 2007 02:00:15 +0000 (UTC) In-reply-to: <877irhn4yh.fsf@mid.thomas-huehn.de> (message from =?iso-8859-1?Q?Thomas_H=FChn?= on Wed, 09 May 2007 21:59:34 +0200) X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.4-2.6 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:70731 Archived-At: It has worked over the last months and years quite well, but do you really want to recommend people to use CVS Emacs when heavy development is under way? Say, when those unicode-2 branch gets merged? Then I recommend people use an older version. That is what the cvs update -D "10 days ago" command is for. David Kastrup says ... A release is a point of stability, one where one tries to make reasonably sure that the overall consistency (of packages working together and with the core, and of code and documentation) is in reasonable shape, for whoever happens to use the software. That presumes most people are not going to contribute, which may well be true. The view may not be a presumption, it may be an accurate description. But the issue may be one of morals, not evidence. The argument may be that people should find it easy to contribute. In any case, David Kastrup's view does not reflect the experience those who I have been calling (to myself) `the ancients'. RMS is a wonderful example of them, since he first wrote Emacs in the 1970s and does not change habits if he can keep them. (I am `ancient', too -- I remember hearing on the radio that Sputnik was launched and being amazed that the announcer had to explain that it was an `artificial moon' -- but that is a totally different story.) But never releasing anything for which one has at least some inclination to stand behind it and call it "this is as good as it gets right now" is not a good idea either, in my book. The point I am trying to make is that some people think Emacs is released every day. That is the opposite of `never releasing anything'. Often enough, but not always, you can use those releases. But others do not think of those updates as releases. -- Robert J. Chassell GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8 bob@rattlesnake.com bob@gnu.org http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc