Hi all,
So I've been adding new features at a pretty quick pace, but that also means I've been introducing bugs just as quickly. My goal was/is to try to get it feature complete as quickly as possible, then get the bugs ironed out as they came up. This has, understandably, annoyed some people, as they'd upgrade to a broken version and couldn't play their podcasts.
I wanted to get feedback on how you'd best like me to release new versions. It generally takes about a week (from past experience on this project) for a release to be tested enough that all of the features introduced work as designed. Unfortunately, while those bugs are getting discovered and worked out, I'm also adding new features, and so there's never really a point where there are 'stable' versions.
There are a few options:
1) Keep going as I have been, putting out features at a breakneck pace, but introducing bugs at the same pace.
Pros: More new features faster, everyone gets to try the new features, notified of new versions
Cons: Buggy as hell until the features calm down, impossible to tell if a new release will work for everyone from the get-go, not always possible to downgrade
2) Introduce beta versions and release versions
I don't have the resources to keep to versions in sync, a release and a beta, so what would happen is all new development would happen in a beta, the beta would be released, and then new feature development would stop while we discover bugs in that beta. Once the bugs are worked out the beta is moved to the latest release and a new beta with new features is started.
Pros: More reliable releases, only those that want the latest risk breaking stuff
Cons: New features would be added at about half the rate (or slower) than they are now, would only be notified in podtrapper of release editions
3) Some other option I haven't considered (post details in this discussion).
So, here's the poll, let me know what you think.