[OFBiz] Users - Re: [OFBiz] Dev - The Key to Effectively Using OFBiz: Collaboration

[Si Chen]

Ean,

I can see the issue from both you and David's perspective. 

I guess my question for you (and everyone else on the list, for that 
matter) is: who, in your opinion, should create these snapshots or, even 
further, stable releases with upgrade paths?  Do you think it should be 
David & Andy, a community effort (like Debian), or a corporate effort 
(like SuSE or Red Hat)?

Si

Ean Schuessler wrote:

>On Friday 15 April 2005 3:50 am, David E. Jones wrote:
>  
>
>>This issue has come up a few times, and recently came up with a client
>>we are working with that is getting started on a big project. This
>>applies to most, if not all, people and organizations that use or want
>>to use OFBiz or something like it...
>>
>>It is also something to keep in mind for developers and contributors to
>>OFBiz. On that note, we are hoping to increase collaboration among
>>OFBiz users and developers, and there will be more messages soon about
>>that, especially focused on organizing help to get things cleaned up,
>>tested, and fixed up for another binary release. OFBiz is just getting
>>to big for one or two or even three people to take on everything that
>>needs to be done to test things, fix things, and so on.
>>
>>Anyway, here is the link to the blog entry that I just put up:
>>    
>>
>
>Honestly, I don't agree with the idea of tracking on the development edge of 
>the project SVN for a production project. We require a level of 
>predictability from our projects so we do indeed work from a snapshot when we 
>do development on a project. We can't afford to have a development effort 
>derailed by some major development that occurs in the OFBiz source tree at 
>some unscheduled point in our delivery timeline.
>
>For most sites that we develop for the customer there will be a specific set 
>of functionality that we have to hit for the delivery. Once delivered, most 
>systems do not evolve continuously but rather remain unchanged for some long 
>period while the customer goes out to utilize the features. Customers tend to 
>want predictable operation more than new features once the requirements are 
>met. So, we have some systems that are based off OFBiz snapshots that date 
>back to pre-2.0 versions. Those systems sit and quietly do their job for the 
>customer every day, without changing and the customer is happy.
>
>So, I disagree. I think snapshots are the only sane way to go. Newer projects 
>can (and will) be based on more recent snapshots and pick up new 
>functionality from trunk. Sometimes trunk functionality may be ported back to 
>older (even very much older) versions of the system for features or security 
>fixes. All this requires additional labor patching back and forward between 
>codebases but that cost is the price of predictability. 
>
>  
>