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Re: An insanely slow guile is the latest standard release!


Jim Blandy <jimb@red-bean.com> writes:

> I'm all for doing a new release soon, but I don't think we should do a
> rushed job.  That's what got us in trouble the first time.
> 

Better to have incrementally better rushed jobs, than one poor rushed
job that everything is judged by. Chances are, things aren't going to
ever get much better (there'll always be bugs... and a push for those
bugs to be fixed); when there is a bug that is going to be very
noticable, it's better to put out a release that fixes that bug (even
if there are other, not quite so noticable bugs still in), than to
wait until everything else gets fixed, tested, etc... 

Linux is a good example of this: if a machine crashing bug is
discovered, it's fixed and a new release is made immediately; there
may still be subtle or less frequently hit bugs, but to wait for those
to be fixed would mean a long stretch with a release no one can really
use (like guile 1.3). This is one of the biggest selling points of
linux, actually; how often to you see it stressed that "If a bug is
found, a patch is available a few hours later to fix it", as opposed
to commercial operating systems, where you wait months at a time for
even the simplest of bugs to be fixed. There isn't really any benefit
to doling out releases frugally.

-- 
Greg