Subject: Re: wu-ftpd 2.6.0 released

From: [email-masked] (Andy Church)
Date: Sat, 09 May 1998 22:31:25 EDT

Stan Barber wrote (quoting me):
>>     I actually talked to [Stan] a little while back, and for all practical
>>purposes, he said his intention was to let wu-ftpd stagnate.  (Sorry, Stan,
>>but that's how it came across.)
>
>It's clear your insight into me is limited. Where did I say in any mail that
>sent you that I intended to do anything other than following the development
>plan as I had outlined it on the web site? 

     Exactly.  And the problem with that is, your development plan doesn't
seem to include bug fixes as soon as they're found.  Witness b16:  The
setproctitle bugs were found mere _days_ after b16 was released, and yet
it's taken five _months_ for you to just announce another beta--and that a
week and a half after you told me personally that you'd get b17 out "in a
few days".

     What you said was that you intended to continue following your
development plan.  What I concluded from that and from the release history
of 2.4.2 was that wu-ftpd wasn't going to go anywhere unless someone else
took over its development.

     I will say that straight-out announcing "wu-ftpd is now at version
2.6.0" was a bad idea.  However, to be frank, I'm quite tired of wu-ftpd
going essentially nowhere over two years, and I want to see its development
continued.  If you can do that, Stan, I'd be more than happy to let you go
ahead and do it--but the past two years have not suggested to me that you
are willing to continue development at a reasonable pace, which is why I
decided to get to work on it myself.  The original idea to create and make
available a new release of wu-ftpd was mine, though Bernhard was the one
that wrote the announcement.  And I intend to continue development--whether
the 2.6 series that Bernhard and I have set up is accepted or not (though I
sincerely hope it will be in spite of its rather rude introduction).

     Like I said, Stan, sorry, but you've done a good job of convincing me
you're not particularly interested in wu-ftpd development.

  --Andy Church                  | If Bell Atlantic really is the heart
    [email-masked]       | of communication, then it desperately
    www.dragonfire.net/~achurch/ | needs a quadruple bypass.

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From: [email-masked] (Stan Barber)
Date: 10 May 1998 04:41:18 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] writes:
>
> And the problem with that is, your development plan doesn't

I will fix any security related bugs as soon as they are found and a rational 
fix is developed. I have proved that time and time again. Thes are critical 
bugs and they are addressed quicktly. Other bugs are detailed on the bug page 
and suggested fixes are provided where available. They are not critical and 
I will release software containing non-critical bug fixes as time is available.

>took over its development.

I guess that's were we differ. I believe a bug-free stable release is better
than some release that has lots of features that may not compile on all
versions of *nix that the various 2.4.2 beta have compiled on in the past. 
Again, folks are welcome to choose what they want. I will finish what I have
started. 

>...

You are welcome to your opinion. I disagree and will continue to do so.
-- 
Stan   | Academ Consulting Services        |internet: [email-masked]
Olan   | For more info on academ, see this |uucp: mcsun!academ!sob
Barber | URL- http://www.academ.com/academ |Opinions expressed are only mine.

---

From: Nathan Neulinger <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 10 May 1998 00:13:16 -0500

> Again, folks are welcome to choose what they want. I will finish what I have

Then quit calling it a beta. Freeze it where it's reasonably stable, and 
don't screw with it except for bug fixes.

Last I heard, alphas and beta WERE for testing new features and
functionality, not for stable releases. 

-- Nathan

------------------------------------------------------------
Nathan Neulinger                       EMail:  [email-masked]
University of Missouri - Rolla         Phone: (573) 341-4841
Computing Services                       Fax: (573) 341-4216

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From: Gregory A Lundberg <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 10 May 1998 01:50:38 -0400 (EDT)

> functionality, not for stable releases. 

You're not reading what Stan said.  He said 'bug-free'.  He has no
intention of declaring a release until he attains it.  That means NEVER!
He can't do it.  Nobody can.  One can only hope that someday he grows up
and realizes it.  Until then, anyone wanna talk about the problems in
wu-ftpd-2.4.2-beta-6245?

----

Gregory A Lundberg		Senior Partner, VRnet Company
1441 Elmdale Drive              [email-masked]
Kettering, OH 45409-1615 USA    1-800-809-2195