[asterisk-dev] Asterisk Project Software Configuration Management Policies

[Matthew Jordan]

On 11/13/2012 12:47 AM, Tzafrir Cohen wrote:
> Thanks for the summary,
> 
> On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 11:44:18AM -0600, Matthew Jordan wrote:
> 
> I'm trying to understand the role of the Standard versions. They don't
> intend to provide a stable API. So they are some sort of playground
> versions, right?
> 

That's incorrect.  They do provide a stable API - as noted on that page,
APIs within a major version branch should not change.

The difference between a Standard version and an LTS is one of
development focus.  For example, take Asterisk 10's rework of the
representation of media within the Asterisk core.  This was a
fundamental architecture change and, as such, carried with it a
reasonable amount of "risk".  However, within Asterisk 10 branch, the
APIs were stable - we didn't decide six months after 10.0.0 to change
how media format attributes were represented in a configuration file.

Note that this architecture change allowed for further enhancements to
be developed for Asterisk 11 (media format attribute negotiation), that
did not require the wholesale re-architecting of how media was
represented internally.  This gets to the reason why Standard releases
are supported for a year - the next LTS is built on top of the
technology released in the previous Standard release, which obviates the
need for the Standard release.

-- 
Matthew Jordan
Digium, Inc. | Engineering Manager
445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - USA
Check us out at: http://digium.com & http://asterisk.org