[fpc-devel] What about splitting compiler and packages releases?

[Florian Klämpfl]

On 25.05.24 10:30, Peter via fpc-devel wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I was wondering: would it make sense to split the release schedule of
> the compiler and the included packages?
> 
> Compiler releases are not frequent (latest is May 2021). In the
> meantime, useful functionality, bug fixes and improvements have been
> added to the packages. To use these added and updated packages, AFAIK,
> there are two possibilities:
> 
> 1. Use the trunk compiler (eg using fpcupdeluxe). Not recommended for
> production environments.
> 2. Use a stable compiler, manually download updated packages to a
> different location and make sure the compiler uses the updated
> packages instead of the ones included with the compiler distribution
> (bit of a hassle).
> 
> I think it would be very useful to have more frequent (stable) package
> releases, while the compiler itself can stick to the current frequency
> of (thoroughly tested) releases.

Having extra release burden on packages won't improve the situation. 
Main issue is simply that preparing a release is a lot of boring work 
and this does not change with the compiler excluded. If it was easy 
work, releases could be build more often. By excluding the compiler, not 
much of https://wiki.freepascal.org/Release_3.2.4 could be removed.

> 
> If I miss a smart way to use updated packages with a stable compiler,
> please let me know. Thanks!
> 
> Kind regards,
> Peter
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