A Request/Recommendation For WIPs

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 3:40 am

I would suggest including a text file in the WIPs that state that things may be broken with savestate/older config files and should consider using the documentation as a reference for the most part (as new things get added in).

You would also have a link pointing to the current documentation.

It would serve as a good warning for those that have no clue when they download the WIP.

It would also benefit to put these warnings/disclaimers on ipher's WIP site for ZSNES as well.

xamenus · Post by **xamenus** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 3:49 am

Yep, I agree.

Although lately, I've wondered if it'd be better if WIPs weren't released at all. Instead, perhaps just make a couple of release candidate builds before the official release.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 5:00 am

WIPs are useful.. like a beta to determine if new features/fixes are working properly. It needs to be emphasized though that if there are significant changes.. like the DMA thing I'm having some issues with... then it should be noted in the forums/changes.txt file that comes with the WIP to prevent "WTF ZSNES IS FUX0RED" kind of posts.

Release Candidate builds (like what they use in Firefox/Mozilla) are more of "we're almost finished, find the bugs so we can plug them up".

In a WIP, you can do essentially the same, but say if you're adding a certain new feature (a non-emulation based feature like the HQ#x modes, or perhaps new GUI features)... you can have feedback for such things to improve upon it.. it might be unproductive to rewrite the damn thing if people are not happy if and when it is implemented without taking little/no suggestions.

Note that, most of the time when people have problems with 1.42.. that they refer to the WIP... because most of the time, there is a fix...

When you do Release Candidates, it makes the assumption that they will take longer to produce (because you are 90-95% done with your current progress)... with emulation slowing down.. the WIPs are something to look forward to.. RCs would be a "long wait" to say the least.

You could argue that it is better to have RCs because you can comment on most of the changes, but on the other hand.. with WIPs... until the next official version comes out.. you can track the progress of these changes better. (You may have less complaints on the forums when WIPs come out because you can refer to the changes.txt file for info and infer somewhat, but then again.. dumb people don't read these things. You could have greater complaints in a RC because there may be a fundamental difference between the previous versions... it does end up to be trivial except for forum complainers)

In the end, it is up to the Devs to decide what works best with them..

If they continue to use WIPs, they would have to make sure to emphasize critical changes in WIPs..

If they use RCs, they need to ask people to look for certain types of bugs (if some people understood what to look for) in the RCs...

xamenus · Post by **xamenus** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:53 pm

I don't know why no one else has replied to this, but I'd like to hear more opinions. WIP releases kind of degrade the value of official releases. When ZSNES v1.50 (or whatever the next version is) is released, it won't really be a big deal to most people, as everyone uses the WIPs already.

Snes9x does not have WIP releases, with official releases being several months apart (Okay, so they had ONE WIP, big deal). I think it's better to delay releases for a while so that when they are finally released, they will have a dramatic effect on the fans of ZSNES.

Post by **grinvader** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 12:46 am

WIPs are not supposed to be used extensively, (soon, there will probably be a lot of people complaining about their states causing weird bugs... like erasing SRAM ahahahaha), there are available to widen the test population to find broken stuff faster.

Jipcy · Post by **Jipcy** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 1:38 am

I agree with Grinvader. In addition, I don't really care what the "fans of ZSNES" think.

It seems to me the people who just want to play will download 1.42 from the files page. People who are more into the whole scene will go to the boards and see the WIPs and download those.

Although I guess the WIPs do get announced on some of the news sites and they are on Ipher's site.

Anyway, if the WIPs stop getting compiled, I'd say have more frequent official releases (but less frequently than the WIPs).

xamenus · Post by **xamenus** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 1:10 am

grinvader wrote:there are available to widen the test population to find broken stuff faster.

The way I see it, ZSNES _is_ a beta anyway, so official releases are expected to have bugs...But to each his own.

ipher · Post by **ipher** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 8:43 pm

WIP's should only be used if you really want to test new (or incomplete) features, or if a bug that you had in the latest official version was fixed...

Unfortunately you can't really expect that if you have an official release once a year or so (current version is 9 months old, 1.36 was 2 1/2 years old when 1.40 came out) and everyone on the board immediately says "get the latest WIP" whenever ANY bug is posted with the (now outdated) official version

I say when the build is stable do a few RCs to iron out any potential problems, and then do an official release. Save the WIPs for the testers.

Unfortunately this will (probably) not happen since some people like to bitch and complain until a dev promises that certain things will be fixed/added before the next official version. (usually to shut them up)

With that said, ZSNES currently needs some more work before the next official version (AKA: this isn't a call to release now)

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:02 pm

Just a small mention ipher, but the new post about FakeNES kinda moved the text out of whack...

ipher · Post by **ipher** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 12:57 am

Deathlike2 wrote:Just a small mention ipher, but the new post about FakeNES kinda moved the text out of whack...

And thats what happens when you forget the '/' to close a tag >_<

Thanks for pointing that out!

xMetaRidley · Post by **xMetaRidley** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:37 am

I have a suggestion, an RSS feed that is updated every time a WIP is released.