I look forward to testing the new release then. And keeping the maintenance one on hand 😉

I thought I'd already replied in this thread? I probably didn't submit it after so many quotes and pastes, sorry (I view the 'net mostly when I'm supposed to be working...).

Qbix wrote:

aside from there being a sticky topic about unofficial builds ?
Things are going to change anyway with what the latest release is.

The sticky isn't ideal for newcomers to the concept of DOSBox, though, who might think that a newer version of DOSBox might be preferable in some way for them to use with their game(s) of choice. And as the replies to this thread shows, even people you'd expect to be in the know aren't always aware of existing problems, so perhaps a list of available downloads with their relevant pros and cons would be helpful.

What does "Things are going to change anyway with what the latest release is." mean, please? It sounds intriguing!

awgamer wrote:

I'd say there are regression bugs to fix before a next release, as is, 0.74 is less buggy and faster than current svn.

For example, this happens in svn and not 0.74, with tie fighter cd, among others, with opengl in full screen, screen is squashed, shifted left, screen cut off, with ascpect correction, cut off still but black border on top and right of screen, with surface, fullscreen is not fullscreen but banded vertical black bars, with aspect correction a black border all around instead of fullscreen at fullscreen.

speedhaste, crashes from illegal access if try to skip past second credits screen with svn.

See, to many people, a newer release would tend to infer that it was faster, and/or more stable, and/or better in some other way. Which might lead to people trying a newer build when v0.74 might be better for them in their current task. I think this might mislead people.

DosFreak wrote:

I was wondering if it would be possible for someone to make a sticky topic in the DOSBox forum, explaining that DOSBox 0.74 is the last official buld

That is the latest official build, not the last.

Yes, I meant the latest, not the final, of course, sorry.

and listing what unofficial later builds there are their enhancements and (if any) regressions their enhancements and (if any) regressions, and what build is recommended for any specific game or whatever.

Why should the dosbox devs bother with unofficial builds when they are busy working on DOSBox.? That is a job for the community.

I said 'someone', not necessarily an official DOSBox programmer. Just someone who knows what's what and can explain everything clearly and concisely, be they a developer (official or unofficial), or just an experienced and knowledgeable end user of the various builds. It's just a suggestion, but if people consider the existing help sufficient then fair enough.

As it is, fairly often someone posts asking about v0.75, and they are told to use an unofficial build, and pointed towards the builds (as in Next Dosbox update?), but I think that newcomers (and even oldies like me, who don't use DOSBox too often) would often be confused by the different unofficial builds.

As with any project you should always use the builds provided by the project itself and not unofficial builds. [/quote]

But what are the unofficial builds for, if not to (surely) build upon and improve the existing builds? It does seem natural to wonder if you (me, the end user) would benefit in some way by trying a newer build rather than using a build that's years old.

DOSBox is not that hard to compile, if you can't compile then pester the DOSBox team to provide an accessible SVN build. IIRC, Qbix has one already but it's not promoted heavily. Prepare to be disappointed if you want whatever is fashionable, it will be pretty much the same as DOSBox 0.74 but with all the fixes since then.

That would be great, I look forward to seeing it when it's finally released to the public!

Use the official build, use a clean SVN ver. That's the official stance. Unofficial builds are not stable as far as we are concerned.
If tracking patches applied to unofficial builds is something you care deeply about then requesting access to the DOSBox wiki and posting the information yourself would be a good plan.

It may be worthwhile to gather all the patches out there and list a justification for why each patch should be included in DOSBox as well as how difficult it is to maintain the patch, what OS it's compatible with, if it is for non game purposes, what license it's under, etc etc.

I can't remember what SVN builds I've tried over the years, such as DOSBox-X and Daum, but I've stuck to v0.74 as far as I can remember, as I don't recall needing or using any additional features (I only play a few DOS games, as I mostly came to PC gaming in 1996 when DOS games were giving way to Windows games, and even then some of the best DOS games later received official or unofficial Windows game engine ports). I would have liked the save snapshot ability, but I never bothered as the warnings about potential instability put me off. More speed would have been nice years back, but I never knew which versions of DOSBox were faster than the others. And nowadays my desktop and laptop can run anything in DOSBox (that I play, at least) at full speed, so my interest now is largely arbitrarily, but DOSBox is a program I find very interesting (it and it's it's related subjects).

Qbix wrote:

well, it will be a maintenance release, but it is in preparation for a full release, so the former current release can be used if we break your favorite game in the new full release.

It will be brilliant to try a new official version of DOSBox!

the official version has been updated since this thread came to life...

Dominus wrote:

the official version has been updated since this thread came to life...

Thanks, I've just downloaded it now.