kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Eeli Kaikkonen <eeli.kaikkonen@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm not a KiCad developer, nor do I know much about its history or
developers, so I don't have any kind of authority here, but I feel I have
to talk about the version names. Now is probably the last possible time to
draw attention to it because "RC1" is around the corner.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle#Release_candidate
:

"a beta version with potential to be a final product, which is ready to
release unless significant bugs <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_bug>
emerge."

They key expression here is "ready to release". That's how it has been used
in all FLOSS projects I have seen. It means that the code doesn't have to
be changed for the final release unless serious new bugs are found. I have
got the impression that the next release of KiCad, which now is called RC1,
should really be beta1.

So, how far KiCad is now from the final release? Has this been discussed
before and how this naming scheme have been decided? What do you understand
by RC and beta?


Eeli Kaikkonen