[Boofo]

Originally Posted by idbuchanan

Sorry to be pedantic but I think it's important in this case... RC's should NOT be the serious bug finding stage!!! Betas are the serious bug finding stages. A "Release Candidate" does exactly what it says on the tin, it's a candidate for release and is a final safeguard to spot any final bugs.

In an ideal world all bugs are fixed after the last beta, and then a RC is released without bugs - that RC then goes Gold/RTM and Bob's your cousin's father. Of course in many cases there'll rightly be several RCs just to ensure that all bugs are indeed caught - but when a RC is released with no bugs (or just a couple of minor ones that can be fixed without having an impact elsewhere), then the code is ready to go Gold/RTM.

I know - I need a slap for being so pedantic, but it's happening more and more where RCs are treated like Betas, and final software is treated like RCs, and I think it's healthy just to stop and think about each part of the design/release cycle of software - to set expectations correctly and to back up programmers/coders when users/owners are expecting too much.

Oh, and happily been using 3.7b3 since its release without any issues - will be upgrading to 3.7b5 this weekend!

To clarify things, by saying serious bug finding stage I meant the RCs concentrate on finding the final bugs and that is their main propose, not adding or changing a lot of things anymore.

And the part about me being your cousin's father, I have apologized for that over and over and sent all the support payments. What else do you want?