[geeklog-devel] 1.5 preview?

[Mark R. Evans]

I think releasing a 'preview' version that you know is not production 
ready (or close enough to be an RC) would be a mistake.  Instead, I 
would duplicate what you have at demo.geeklog.net (maybe call it 
preview.geeklog.net or gl15.geeklog.net) and allow folks to see it in 
action and play with the new features.  I'm sure Michael's refresh 
scripts could easily be adapted to GL15.  Unfortunately, this will not 
show off one of the best new features of GL 15 and that is the new 
install.  Maybe a set of screen shots in a story to show it off would work.

The reason why I think packaging up a preview release would be a bad 
idea is that you know it is not ready to go on a live site.  From my 
experience, most users do not have an environment to load and test 
things.  Those that do, could easily grab a nightly snapshot if they 
feel so inclined and install it.  You will hit a much larger audience by 
putting up a demo site and have much less support as a result.

I would assume the intent is to get feedback on the new features, not to 
debug the code (which you'll get some of that just with it being on a 
live site).  You can accomplish that goal easily with a demo site.  You 
can also control the updates, so as new features or bug fixes are made, 
it will be easy to update the preview site.

Food for thought...

Thanks!
Mark



Dirk Haun wrote:
> I've been kicking around the idea of releasing a "preview" version of
> Geeklog 1.5. By which I mean a version that's very cleary NOT finished
> yet, just to show what's coming.
>
> It's been over a year since the release of 1.4.1, and those not
> following geeklog-devel may get the (wrong) idea that we're not getting
> anywhere. So I thought it would be a good idea to show off what we
> (almost) have and get some early feedback at the same time.
>
> Just need to make it very clear that at this stage, anything (database,
> themes, functionality) could still change and that nobody should really
> try to run a site with it.
>
> Okay, so what's the absolute minimum required to be able to release such
> a preview? I can think of these:
>
> 1) Have all the plugins in the config GUI. I just checked in the Polls
> config and hope to do the Calendar config tomorrow.
>
> I don't bother too much about any details in the config for a preview -
> just have everything there so you'd get an idea how it's supposed to work.
>
> 2) We need at least some rudimentary installation instructions for the
> new installer. Any takers?
>
> 3) I realize that MS SQL support is broken in CVS right now. I can't
> test or fix it and I'm willing to leave it at that for the preview.
>
> Anything else I may have missed?
>
> bye, Dirk
>
>
>