Re: emacs 21.2

[Jason Rumney]

"Marshall, Simon" <address@hidden> writes:

> I think your release policy itself is wrong---assuming I know what it
> is---I think the only reason to release a version that does not fix
> serious but not necessarily fatal bugs is when a quick release is needed
> because the previous release was broken.  I think 21.2 should have fixed
> known serious bugs as well as addressed "stability" (however you define
> that) issues.

21.2 does fix some known serious bugs. But in each case, the chance of
the change causing its own new problems has to be balanced against the
problems it fixes. If we waited until EVERYTHING was fixed, we would
never release a version of Emacs again.

> Are you saying that, from the beginning, only minor fixes would be
> going in 21.2?  What was the point of that?

Minor fixes generally don't cause problems, they only fix them. Major
fixes come with their own set of problems.  Since 21.1 was a major
release with many new features, from the beginning it was thought that
a bugfix release would be needed.  I think more bugs were expected in
21.1 than were actually found, so perhaps that is why this release may
seem unnecessary to some people.


-- 
Jason Rumney