[isabelle-dev] NEWS

[Alexander Krauss]

On 01/04/2012 10:19 PM, Makarius wrote:
> The difference of a fully integrated release bundle and "a development
> snapshot" is increasing more and more -- since the bundles are getting
> so advanced. I would not like to see the clear distinction between
> production quality releases and arbitrary snapshots diluted. Some users
> might even think that a snapshot is always the latest and greatest
> thing, while in reality it ages much faster than proper releases.

This raises the question what the role of the old "development 
snapshots" is. I have not used one myself for many years, and I think 
their existence is mostly historic (In the old days, a TUM account was 
required to be able to check out the CVS repository, so the snapshots 
were the only way of sharing non-releases with the outside world).

So the general tendency would be to deemphasize these snapshots and 
recommend the actual source repository for developers (and AFP 
maintainers) and packaged releases for everybody else.

But Larry's concern is still valid: Perhaps the solution is to provide a 
release candidate early on, together with an announcement of the changes.

Alex