This is a great example of the problem we're facing, and this is just an
early example. People are eagerly awaiting Eclipse 4.0, the next
generation eclipse. You can message until you are blue in the face, but
that isn't going to stop the perception that if you call it 4.0, it's
that 4.0.
So yes, please call this a Preview release or something along that line.
-----Original Message-----
From: eclipse-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:eclipse-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jeff McAffer
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 9:36 AM
To: General development mailing list of the Eclipse project.
Subject: Re: [eclipse-dev] Re: [e4-dev] Eclipse Project 4.0 Release
There could of course be many nuances missed by Google translate but the
article seemed mostly like a distillation of John's recent e4/Eclipse
4.0 clarification post. I don't think they particularly cast the
situation differently (at least not by that translation).
The problems with expectation that arise are inherent in the naming
(Eclipse 4.0). As discussed that naming implicitly leads one to believe
that this is "the Eclipse 4.0 SDK" and it is the "logical successor to
3.6". If we are not comfortable with everyone downloading and using
it, then the naming should reflect that with some sort of qualifier
(e.g., "Preview", "Beta", "Early Availability", ...). IMHO this sends a
clear, representative and appropriate message to the community.
Boris' interview article pointed out that we are targetting the 2011
release train. This is nice positioning. It may be a little to subtle
however. That is, its not clear that people will say "hmm, its not on
the simultaneous release so it is not stable/bug-free/..." (frankly, we
don;t want to promote that idea either). Perhaps we can combine the
approaches and talk about the upcoming Eclipse 4.0 SDK as the
"Indigo/Isaac preview"?
Jeff
