Author: Gregory Maxwell 2011-09-19 13:03:39
Published on: 2011-09-19T13:03:39+00:00
In a discussion about creating a stable release line for Bitcoin, Gavin Andresen expressed his initial reaction as a no. He believed that testing and bug-fixing is the bottleneck for improving core Bitcoin, and maintaining two release lines would not make it better. Additionally, until a "1.0" version is ready for everyone to use, using the word "stable" would be dishonest.The primary concern being addressed in this discussion is providing a stable base for miners, banks, and webservices to apply patches on top of. Currently, those who want to keep up with development are stuck forward porting against often disruptive changes. This leads to people trailing development on their systems by many months, which isn't healthy for the network.Despite the suggestion to create a bugfixes only branch, Gavin was not convinced that it would help much as even bug fixes can disrupt local fixes and require more effort for upgrading. Instead, he suggested putting more effort into mainlining changes and restructuring code to better accommodate patches that aren't suitable for the mainline. This would encourage people to make their fixes publicly available instead of keeping them private for competitive advantage.
Updated on: 2023-05-18T22:20:54.502635+00:00