[wp-hackers] Differentiating nightlies and betas

[David Clark]

Hi,

Now that we are post 1.5 and transitionng from cvs to Subversion, I 
would like to raise a tangential "meta" issue.

Basically, I would suggest doing away with  nightlies in favor of less 
frequent, though more clearly documented , builds.

I am fully where of both the need for testers and people's desire to 
have the latest and greatest, but I fear that nightlies convey a false 
sense of completeness. I would argue that those of us who what and/or 
need up to the minute changes do not use nightlies anyway, but rather 
update  file by files.

For those that are less intimate with the code but don't  mind "beta" 
software, there should be intermittent builds that are based on 
functional mile,stones, and not just change in day, week, or  month. 
They should be documented with a list of FUNCTIONAL differences (not 
just a log of line-by-line changes), and a list of known/outstanding 
issues.

I understand it requires more on the part of the "developers", but I 
think it would prevent confusion and facilitate more meaning feedback 
from testers/users.

Thoughts?

dc