[tex-live] TL13 status

[Zdenek Wagner]

Hi all,

1. The version on DVD is not untested. For instance, Khaled Hosny
kindly provided XeTeX for testing. I believe that ConTeXt is tested
too (I do not use it, therefore I am not involved in testing it). The
infrastructure is also available for testing, any volunteer can
install pretest, report bugs and/or supply fixes.

2. Bug fix branch is needed either in the commercial world (the
customer should receive bug fixes but not new features unless he/she
pays for them) or in large projects. Why shouldn't I add new features
at any time? Whenever I implement a new feature in any of my packages,
I run again all my tests to see that nothing was broken. If the old
tests provide the same result as they did before, it means that the
new version contains the new feature plus the equivalent bugs as
before.

3. I provide my work to CTAN in the hope it is useful for others. I
always summarize the changes and write whether it is a bug fix or a
new feature TL developers do their best to distribute packages from
CTAN to users. It is their decision whether they update the package or
not. However, people need new features and if they had to wait half
year before the new feature becomes available. And how to do it on
CTAN, should I submit the latest package with all features and bug fix
packages to a few old releases? Anyway, although I have my packages in
subversion, I am not sure that I will manage to keep that many
branches in sync. I fix a bug whenever I find it or somebody reports
it. I add a feature whenever I need it but I am not paid for
maintaining the packages. Thus the previous version becomes
unsupported whenever I implement and test a new feature.

2013/4/9 Mojca Miklavec <mojca.miklavec.lists at gmail.com>:
> On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 12:21 AM, Philip TAYLOR wrote:
>>
>> What is necessary is to encourage developers to focus
>> solely on bug-fixes during the pre-DVD freeze, and to resume
>> development work only once that freeze is over.
>
> Do you mean bug-fixing mode for 6 months, twice per year? ;)
>
> Mojca



-- 
Zdeněk Wagner
http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz