Patch-level updates (was Re: Upgrade to latest...)

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Mon, Jul 05, 2004 at 05:01:16PM -0400, Kenneth Brody wrote:
> brian at aljex.com wrote:
> > If fp would desist in including new features and altered behaviour in
> > patch-level updates you'd have a point. (the z in x.y.z)
> 
> New features added in patch-level updates are usually minor (such as
> allowing @ID to return the username under Windows), or something that
> is useful enough to not wait until the next release (such as adding
> the PFSHOWROWCOL=OFF config variable to allow filePro to work better
> with screenreaders for the blind and visually impaired).
> 
> Changes in behavior are probably either bugfixes (the old behavior was
> broken), or a bug itself (the change should not have happened).

Correct.

But it's the nature of things that new code can not only have internal
bugs, but also cause things in other places to break.  The more modular
your overall code is, the less likely this is to happpen...

but see 'seventh-level-damage'.  :-)

> > Also we need to be able to trust that no major re-writes of code happen in patch
> > level updates even if the end result is supposed to produce the same outward
> > behaviour.
> 
> There haven't been "major rewrites of code" during patch level updates
> that I can think of.

Well, that's good to hear.

But these assurances don't speak directly to Brian's other points
concerning final-release availablility, which which I heartily agree.
Bud?  Wally?  You guys listening?  Yes, this is an unofficial list, but
we know you're here.  This is an issue you're likely to be presented
with formally; be good to be thinking about it now...

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
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