Re: Re: CMU Common Lisp

[friedman@gnu.ai.mit.edu]

>How do you do releases?  Is the "Gnu tape" a constantly moving target, or
>does it go through noticeable release cycles?

   Every 6 months we publish a bulletin which outlines the general status
of the GNU project, and lists most of the software on our various
distribution tapes.  However, I update the tapes whenever there's a stable
release of a program we already have to cover bug fixes, new features, or
whatever.  If genuinely new programs get added to the distribution tapes,
they simply remained unannounced until the next bulletin is published, or
stay unannounced (as "bonus" software") so that we can remove programs as
we need space on tapes for other programs.  I'll likely only do the latter
with emacs-lisp packages.  

   I'm also changing the way we distribute tapes this winter.  Come
January, we hope to have 3 main distribution tapes and a beta tape with
pre-releases of gdb 4, gcc 2, gnu libc, and eventually, emacs 19.  They'll
get moved to the main tapes as they become stable. 

   I don't announce new tape releases anywhere, since the latest software
is always available on prep.ai.mit.edu for anonymous FTP.  People expecting
version 3.0 of something will simply be surprised to see 4.0 on a tape
(they can always call the distribution office and ask, if they really want
a particular version).