New OpenTTD Dev versioning/terminology FAQ

mironos · Post by **mironos** » 08 Feb 2007 21:38

Hello all,

I've created a new version FAQ on the Wiki site that attempts to explain the difference between RCs, nightlies, SVN branches, etc.

I think I got MOST of the information right (I'm fairly new to the terminology myself), but I know it needs review. If those in-the-know could look at it and help me with any corrections that need to be made, I would greatly appreciate it.

mart3p · Post by **mart3p** » 08 Feb 2007 22:22

Excellent job minonos, I can see myself pointing many newbies at this page.

The points on which you ask for correction:

Official Release (Edit required: is this really the correct term?)

This is only my understanding and I may be wrong, but I would say 'official release' refers to any build of the game released by the developers (including the RCs), rather than an 'unofficial release' a user build possibly including patches. A better term might be 'full release' but I'm not sure of the exact terminology that the devs use.

MiniIN
This term refers to bits of code that were also separate from the main branch. However, this has been phased out, and will soon no longer exist.
TO-DO: I'm fairly sure that description is inaccurate. Could someone correct me?

The MiniIN is a branch that contains the trunk code (now the 0.5.0-RC5 code) plus many user patches. Link to this wiki page here. While it is not planned to do any father development on the MiniIN it is not 'phased out'. It was in fact updated today, to synchronise it with 0.5.0-RC5. Once 0.5.0 is released, the MiniIN will be synced to that and then no more updates will occur. At that stage the MiniIN will be 0.5.0 plus all the user patches.

Digitalfox · Post by **Digitalfox** » 08 Feb 2007 23:00

Nice work mironos

mironos · Post by **mironos** » 08 Feb 2007 23:44

Thanks guys!

Part of the reason I like doing these sorts of things is that writing about them helps ME understand them better.

For example, as I was making updates based on mart3p's feedback, I realized that the term "trunk" wasn't referring to a box of some kind, but the trunk of the tree. That flash of insight made the whole thing clearer to me.

Of course, you would have thought I would have picked that up based on the term "branch", but...

mironos · Post by **mironos** » 08 Feb 2007 23:46

Oh, also, if anyone can confirm what mart3p was saying about the terminology used for a major release (e.g. 0.5.0), I'll go ahead and make the change to the FAQ.

Post by **Rubidium** » 08 Feb 2007 23:52

I would personally say that 0.4.8, 0.5.0 etc are releases, 0.5.0-RCx are release candidates, thus candidates to eventually become releases.
Nightlies are not really releases as it is a totally automated process which barely any quality control; it just shows the state of the development and tells the developers whether it does not compile anymore on semi-exotic platforms.

About major and minor release: an increment of the first or second digit would be a major release, the last (third) digit would be a minor release as it (generally) only adds bugfixes and no features.

Digitalfox · Post by **Digitalfox** » 09 Feb 2007 00:01

mironos wrote:Oh, also, if anyone can confirm what mart3p was saying about the terminology used for a major release (e.g. 0.5.0), I'll go ahead and make the change to the FAQ.

Well i do agree with mart3p with the "full release"term..
But i'm portuguese and in English, "official" could also mean final or complete i guess.. It depends if the word can also mean that..

I'm saying this, because in portuguese there are words, witch can mean a lot of things, depending on the situation

mironos · Post by **mironos** » 09 Feb 2007 00:18

Great! Thanks for the feedback. It's being included in the FAQ.

Also, Rubidium, I'm sure you're probably busy, but if you time and have any corrections or recommendations for the FAQ, please let me know as well.

Bjarni · Post by **Bjarni** » 09 Feb 2007 00:55

Official Release (Edit required: is this really the correct term?)

I usually call them stable releases. RC are release candidates.
Official releases are the builds we provide, while unofficial releases are when 3rd party people compile it (read: when we can't say if the source has been modified).

mironos · Post by **mironos** » 09 Feb 2007 17:49

All right, I've removed from the page the warning that I might be clueless on the subject, and added this to the FAQ list. It's now official...or is it a release...or a stable release...a nightly?

Thanks to all who provided feedback, and also to all those who provided the information already out there that I stole from.

Born Acorn · Post by **Born Acorn** » 11 Feb 2007 18:10

The illustration you added leads people to believe stables are the same as trunk, which isn't true; at the time of 0.5.0's release, trunk will already have several new features and additions not present in 0.5.0. Here's a hacked up version of your drawing to show how stables are branched off.

Post by **Rubidium** » 11 Feb 2007 18:16

Born Acorns illustration is not completely correct too. See the attached illustration for how it goes in reality.

I hope the illustration is clear, if not, don't hesitate to ask :)

mironos · Post by **mironos** » 12 Feb 2007 17:38

Ah, I see. I'm understanding more and more by the day.

I'll try to work on new illustrations in the next couple of days. Thanks for the feedback/correction, both of you.

Note that the final illustrations probably won't be as detailed as Rubidium's drawing, since I'm gearing this FAQ toward new USERS of OpenTTD, and they don't need to know some of the intricacies.

However, if there's a need for a more complex illustration for developers, let me know, and maybe I can work on something (hopefully w/ some expert help

)

Quark · Post by **Quark** » 12 Feb 2007 17:49

Rubidium wrote:Born Acorns illustration is not completely correct too. See the attached illustration for how it goes in reality.

I hope the illustration is clear, if not, don't hesitate to ask

Born Acorns illustration is correct if you make some abstractions like «green to red color change is syncing» and «rectangle is tag», and also «there can be more than one backport» and «branches aren't always in sync»

Post by **Rubidium** » 12 Feb 2007 17:51

Quark wrote:Born Acorns illustration is correct if you make some abstractions like «green to red color change is syncing» and «rectangle is tag», and also «there can be more than one backport» and «branches aren't always in sync» :)

No it isn't, as it makes it look that for 0.5.1 we are going to branch trunk again, which we do not do. That is the major flaw of his drawing.

Quark · Post by **Quark** » 12 Feb 2007 17:52

Also (AFAIK) removed branches can be restored if you know in what revision they present and all revisions also stay horever in repository (or cleanup is possible?)

Quark · Post by **Quark** » 12 Feb 2007 17:53

Rubidium wrote:
Quark wrote:Born Acorns illustration is correct if you make some abstractions like «green to red color change is syncing» and «rectangle is tag», and also «there can be more than one backport» and «branches aren't always in sync»
No it isn't, as it makes it look that for 0.5.1 we are going to branch trunk again, which we do not do. That is the major flaw of his drawing.

Oh, yes — I miss that. There must be «0.6.0» only

mironos · Post by **mironos** » 13 Feb 2007 20:40

Illustrations have been updated. I didn't include details such as bugfixes from the trunk being added to release version, nor did I try to illustrate that a Release Candidate is actually a branch off the version branch, etc. I think adding those details for newer users would confuse, rather than help.

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New OpenTTD Dev versioning/terminology FAQ

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