[Opensim-dev] Beta? (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Dahlia Trimble]

I'd agree that the terms "alpha" and "beta" are not really applicable to
OpenSimulator and I would not be disappointed to see them abandoned.
OpenSimulator is ever-evolving and, by the way it is defined on the wiki,
is capable of multiple uses and protocols, one of which will provide an
environment similar to Second Life. This mode is by far the most popular
mode and I'd be surprised if many of our users were aware of any other
intended modes. However, much of the core code is designed around
supporting other modes and clients. As such, user expectation is usually
driven by compatibility with Second Life and any new features which Linden
Lab may develop. and these expectations often drive OpenSimulator
development. OpenSimulator, being a community/volunteer developed project,
has many diverse interests contributing to the  core code base. It is also
designed to be extensible via external modules which are attached to the
core code at run time and which can be developed as independent projects.
These modules can add features to the core code and contribute to it's
"feature completeness". Compatibility with Second Life may be a desired
feature set and may be incomplete in core but may be more complete with
additional externally developed modules (e.g., path finding or server-side
baking).  Likewise, Second Life is a moving target and has an ever-changing
feature set.

As to the existance of an "Open Simulator code acceptance authority", it's
the core development team which decides which features they add or which
submitted patches are accepted for inclusion into the core code base. These
decisions are discussed and made in public via Mantis, the #opensim-dev IRC
channel, or the Opensim-dev mailing list. There are often negotiations
between core devs and non-core contributors about acceptability and any
modifications which may be be needed or desired.

Considering that SL is a moving target and that a large majority of
OpenSimulator users use this feature set. I'd probably say that it is quite
feature-rich but not complete, at least with core. It can be more
feature-complete with inclusion of external modules. Many grids using
OpenSImulator also develop their own grid services which are far more
capable than those included with the core code. As such, I'd consider these
end-user applications already far beyond "alpha" or "beta" status and these
terms really serve no purpose and should be abandoned. I'd also consider
other parts of OpenSimulator which makes it useful for non-SL applications
to be quite underdeveloped and possibly of "alpha" status. This may
continue indefinitely due to these small minority use cases and the
probability that such implementations become private forks and seldom
contribute back to core.


On Thu, Jun 12, 2014 at 12:25 PM, M.E. Verhagen <marceled9 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Maybe it is a good idea to drop the status flag al together and just call
> it the 0.8 OpenSim release ?
>
> I do not think that the alpha or beta flag has not got a real meaning
> other that some people seem to have some sort of expectation of it.
> When OpenSim would get a gamma flag or so it would not change anything.
>
> Feature complete sounds a bit like the weather forecast. I would not count
> on it.
>
> New features will be added, often it is a just matter a good idea and some
> devs willing to spend time to develop them.
>
>
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