Re: RFH: GPLv3

[Brooks Moses <brooks dot moses at codesourcery dot com>]

DJ Delorie wrote:
> I read these as "4.2.1 is the last 4.2 release".  Pulling a 4.3.3 from
> that branch is, IMHO, stupid and confusing.  If 4.2.1 is the last 4.2
> release, the 4.2 branch is DEAD (svn topology notwithstanding).  The
> next release cannot be 4.3.3, that makes no sense.  The next release
> would be 4.3.0, regardless of where it came from.  However, we've been
> telling users "feature X will be in 4.3" for some time, please don't
> turn us into liars.

We are, what, about six months out from having the current 4.3 branch 
ready for release?  And 4.2.1 will be released in a week or two, so 
there's not any present urgency to a further release there yet.

We _could_, hypothetically speaking, avoid some of the confusion 
problems you mention by waiting until mainline is ready for release, and 
releasing it as 4.4.0, and only _then_ doing the next release in the 
4.2-branch sequence (which we'd call 4.3.0).  Yes, this would mean that 
4.3.0 and 4.4.0 are released essentially simultaneously, and it would 
mean waiting three extra months for an official 4.2-branch update. 
Might be worth it, though.

On the other hand, this also means that even with the present schedule 
and stuff, it's only three months or so between "Ok, so here's 4.3.0, 
which doesn't have what we'd said would be in it" and "And now here's 
4.4.0, which does have all that", and that isn't _that_ long.

- Brooks