On Thu, 2 Dec 2004, jon wrote:
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 16:44:50 -0500 From: jon <jon@...235...> To: inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [Inkscape-devel] Winlibre and Upping our point release numbers
Man, reading these comments is fun. Did you all see that we are being included in this interesting collection of apps for windows users?
http://www.winlibre.com/en/Versions.php
Also check the numbers...I think I'm in favor of beginning to advance our version numbers higher up like firefox did, thunderbird, and gimp. Although numbering is quite superficial, maybe we should start doing full point release releases after 0.40. Maybe the next one is 0.50, then next 0.60, etc. (HINT: I'm working on the roadmap rework right now)
I like version numbers and I would particularly like to see something stamped as "1.0 stable" (because 1.0 is a very big deal to some users myself included) sometime in the next two years but I wouldn't recommend making the numbering system too arbitrary.
What might work would be to tag CVS and bump the version number more often like after a fix or new feature has been applied and things seem reasonable stable and buildable. This could be done without making a fullscale release, and more importantly it could be done often (on a timescale of weeks) and it would provide a jumping on point for those who want cutting edge but not bleeding edge.
It was roughly four months between Inkscape 0.40 and the previous version, which is perfectly reasonable and as inkscape does provide a wealth of nightly builds I couldn't really make claim that Inkscape does anything but live up to the maxim of "release early release often" but I do think tagging CVS more often even adding an additional minor number (like version 0.40.1) might be a reasonable way to sort of release more often.
However, our system works currently, so why change it, right? I do think though that we need to get a supa-advanced version of Inkscape out the gate as Microsoft is going to drop their WVG (their SVG makeover) soon, and then we know what that means...
It seems likely they will release Creature House Expression to fill this space, I recall it being mentioned (here i think) as a free download if you were willing to subject yourself to Microsoft Passport (which I wasn't so I never tried it).
I keep seeing in comments people saying how our app is very well developed for such an early release thus implying that the app is new. The public perceives an app through maturity on many levels. What do you all think?
I think users were comparing Inkscape to other open source applictions and that Windows and Mac users would not be so generous but that is not to say I dont think Inkscape is great and enjoy using it a lot, just that it it is important to carefully manage expectations or else users maybe dissappointed when 1.0 doesn't match what the old versions of the roadmap might have suggested it would be.
Sincerely
Alan Horkan