Post 3.2 Kopete and packagers

[Jason Keirstead]

On November 25, 2003 1:21 pm, Till Gerken wrote:
> Fact is, that Kopete is currently in a state where it would be much better
> to not be bound to the release cycle, however, this will change as the
> application matures I think. Right now there are just too many features we
> could still be implementing.

I don't know why people keep saying this, it's totally backwards.

Being part of the release cycle is *better* for features. You get a longer 
time period to implement and test new features properly, and get proper 
planning of what features are needed via release schedules so you can 
properly focus your time.

When we aren't using  the KDE release schedule things just turn into a huge 
mess. We're releasing every few months, which results in features getting 
rushed in and debugged on a part by part basis, instead of considering the 
product as a whole and doing them properly from the get-go, which is much 
easier when you have 8-10 months do design, develop, refactor, develop...
(repeat as needed), instead of having to freeze the code every 8 weeks for 
another release.

Having longer release cycles with proper planning, followed up by extended 
freeze periods for testing is a much better plan than "release early, release 
often", which in the end always ends up being "release early, break stuff, 
fix it, release early again". 

That paradigm is great for tacking on features like piecemeal, but it's no way 
to develop a properly design application. Over time you just end up with a 
huge mess.

-- 
There's no place like 127.0.0.1

http://www.keirstead.org