[fpc-pascal] New Get Lazarus Initiative

[Jonas Maebe]

On 04 Feb 2015, at 11:37, Anthony Walter wrote:

> Jonas, I'll re-add the svn revision number in my next round of  
> builds wich
> will follow shortly. I was rebuilding all OS bundles from the same  
> revision
> and copied them to my test systems. Unfortunately I deleted all the  
> svn
> tracking files before I did my first copy, which removes maybe 100s of
> megabytes. anyhow, next build 'll leave in the svn revision file for
> Lazarus to read and present in the about page.

We have 2.7.1, 3.0.1, and in the future we'll also have 3.0 and  
(probably) 3.0rc1, but a generic test version of 3.0 does not exist. I  
understand you don't want to overload people with details, especially  
with the confusing situation where there is already a 3.0.1, but no  
3.0 yet (it probably would have been better to make the version number  
in the fixes branch 2.9.9 instead of immediately 3.0.1, but that's a  
bit too late now).

Nevertheless, I'm afraid this will become a maintenance and support  
nightmare due to confusion. E.g., since there is no way to select "3.0  
testing" on the bug tracker, people will probably just select "3.0" as  
version (once it becomes a selectable option). Similarly, 3.0rc1 will  
be the first "official" test version of 3.0, and if people then start  
report 3.0rc1 as version while they used one of your test versions...

I think the easiest option is to simply call it 3.0.1 (test version or  
not). Once 3.0 is released, you can then either change it to 3.0  
(there will undoubtedly be a few questions regarding why it went from  
3.0.1 to 3.0, but that can then be explained) or keep updating to  
newer and newer 3.0.1 versions (since I guess the main point is to  
provide people with easy advance testing of newer FPC versions than  
the latest release).

You can also get the FPC revision number in the compiler by creating  
an empty revision.inc file in the fpc/compiler directory and running  
make (if "svnversion" is in the path and the svn metadata is available).

> Oh an regarding Test in my prior message. If anyone wants to clarify  
> that I
> am bundling FPC 3.0 in a testing stage on any page on the  
> initiative, just
> click "edit page", make your addition, and I'll merge it in using my
> moderator utilities.

At least the first sentence under "Installation" and under "Windows"  
at http://www.getlazarus.org/setup/ only mention 3.0 and don't say  
anything about testing. Unless you repeat that word everywhere, you  
can be certain that most people will only see "3.0" (well, even if you  
do repeat it they will probably still only see "3.0").


Jonas