development in open source is always flaky and sometimes never ses final releases. development slows down and then spikes again. spikes almost always leaves the source les stable so developers think it might need some more testing so development slows down again, then spikes...
the decision to declare NOW is the right time to go for a release is hard to make.
for dosbox it seems a new final version is approaching after all.

(sorry for the no uppercase but my little daughter takes one arm right now 😀)

As much as I want a 0.64 version, I'd probably just end up using a CVS build days later 😅

Although there are many people who don't wish to use CVS builds of programs, so it will be a good thing once the next version is done and out.

The way I see it is that the devs judged 0.63 to be good enough. (Which it is). Any updates after that would have been nice but not really necessary. It's also been helpful to get alot of compatibility reports based on just one version of DosBox (0.63) as opposed to many different versions.

I think you'll be happy to know that DosBox 0.65 is currently undergoing testing for a release. (We are currently testing RC1 of DosBox 0.65 so the release may be very very close). Of course there have been ALOT of changes within the past 2 weeks to DosBox so hopefully it won't be released too soon before it's ready.

What's really sad is that your post really is pretty cliche despite not assuming. As with many development projects, it'll be out when it's out. The CVS IS public. You can build a new version whenever you like, and several people maintain their own CVS builds for the public to show them what's going down and let them enjoy the new goodness.

Just a thought, guys, but given the obvious impractiallity of making the daily CVS build available on the DOSBox website, and the obvious demand for new versions of the program, might I offer the following suggestion?

Have a monthly CVS binary build available to download from the official website, complete with a warning that it quite-likely will not be stable and that if users want stability, they should stiick to the offical releases. I propose that this monthly build be released on the first of the month, every month, using the latest official CVS code.

If the site maintainers are willing to put in more work, there could be possible fortnightly, or even weekly builds available.

Again, this is only a suggestion, so it's not like I'm demanding anything. My initial suggestion of having a monthly build comes from the fact that I go and get compiled CVS builds about that often.

The thing is, is that most users don't know how to use DosBox properly. So they use the DosBox compatibility page to judge wether a game works in DosBox or not. (Without trying the game in DosBox first). They also assume that since the compatibility list only lists the game as playable in 0.58 that it doesn't work in 0.63 so they use the older version of DosBox instead. (Yup, DosBox users are really that ignorant).

If a CVS version of DosBox were to be released monthly this would make the comatibility page useless since this page is updated mostly by the people it serves and a monthly compatibility page would be pretty useless.....and I highly doubt that people submitting reports would report the official DosBox version using instead the CVS version for their report which would skew the compatibility reports.

Frankly, once 0.65 is released I wouldn't mind seeing Official DosBox releases taking as long as a year to release, roughly the same as 0.63 to 0.65. (roughly a year + a couple of months).

Since 0.65 is VASTLY more compatible than 0.63 I really don't see a monthly CVS offering much to the average DosBox user, any user above average can easily aquire a compiled CVS build.

A monthly CVS build is more usefull for a project like ScummVM since the list of games useable by ScummVM is very few compared to DosBox.

Also remember that the Beta Testers of this forum are the ones that provide much of the input for DosBox problems. We have most of the dos games anyway. Monthly CVS builds would just serve to bring alot of stupid posts that have already been answered a million times before.

I guess a monthly CVS build could work.....as long as it's hidden away from the DosBox site, given tons of warning messages, and not provided any support whatsoever by the forums/emails/etc unless the user really has something to contribute. (IE...not posting one post on the VOGONS forum and then disappearing forever). That's really what it's all about. Not giving away CVS builds for people who just want the latest CVS but giving CVS builds to people who are actually going to contribute to the project.

I actually enjoy running the CVS build and finding whatever mysterious bugs I can. 😊 If you ask me, of all the opensource communities and projects dosbox has to be one of the friendliest, most helpful and fastest around. Most of my questions and problems are solved in hours or days.

I say take as long as you need to make 0.65 as stable as a brick house so that new users will have very little to complain about.

Have a monthly CVS binary build available to download

I wouldn't do that, since it still takes valuable time off one of the team AND more improtantly everyone who really wishes to use recent CVS builds can find one very easily.
It wouldn't be too hard though to have daily CVS builds with a member of the team just dedicated to this. In the open source project I'm active with we have one member who releases daily binary snapshots (whenever there was an actual code change at least). He does that for several projects.
Anyway, I'm gonna stick to CVS forever, I just love being able to built it myself and apply any patch I want but not having to deal with patches I don't care about (and other sources offer here precompiled).

There's a bunch of different cvs versions available...there is no need for an "official" cvs builds. Aep-emu compiles are straight from the cvs and xtale tries to update it pretty often. I make cvs compiles roughly each month or so with patches I find useful and of course ykhwong's compiles have all the patches possible 😀. There's a lot of development going on currently, so daily builds don't make sense until the code stabilizes somewhat...

I think a monthly CVS (with warnings and everything) on the DOSBox's site downloads section would be nice to have for everyone who just wants to play games in DOSBox better but isn't an "interner person" and will have a hard time finding a CVS build. I know enough people who use computers all the time but would never imagine the possibility of entering an internet forum and find the answer there.

The DOSBox CVS tends to be extremely stable compared to most open source projects. I think it's perfectly safe for people to use the vanilla daily CVS builds available at places like AEP Emulation/CVS Compile.

I would also like to point out again that release versions are just CVS versions that have been extensively tested and deemed worthy of release. They'll be out of date five minutes after release when Qbix or Harekiet thinks of some new change they want to make in CVS. Actually, they'll probably be out of date *before* they're released, as CVS development is likely to continue while release candidates are tested.

I'm still hung up on whether to wait for the newest Dosbox official release before burning my DVD dos collection or not. 😅 Right now there really aren't any issues using my current CVS build, but if there is another official version "just around the corner" I might think about waiting.....

That's a special case... Probably worth waiting unless you're in a hurry. For day-to-day stuff CVS is great, but it might be worth waiting for an extra-tested version before burning it to disc.

HunterZ wrote:

That's a special case... Probably worth waiting unless you're in a hurry. For day-to-day stuff CVS is great, but it might be worth waiting for an extra-tested version before burning it to disc.

well I've been working on this disc for ages, so waiting a little more couldn't hurt. 😉

Once you're done with the disc make sure to seed a torrent! I would like to see it.

Ok ok I know this is illegal I shouldn't have said that. /me goes ashamed to the corner (you should still do it though 😉)

ChaosFish wrote:

Once you're done with the disc make sure to seed a torrent! I would like to see it.

Ok ok I know this is illegal I shouldn't have said that. /me goes ashamed to the corner (you should still do it though 😉)

Look, I'll admit I've done some illegal things in my life....but I have very mixed feelings about putting this disc online. On one hand I support the cause of abandonware (old unsold games distribution) and on the other I support buying sold games. Some of the games on these discs are still sold (I have the cds/disks) 😵

So....I'm not so sure I want to do that. 😅

Heh that's ok. I'm not sure I'd do it myself actually.

People please.
*closed*.