[Asterisk-Users] Re: [Asterisk] Software quality control

[Bill Jennings]

> Personally, I run CVS on production equipment.  If it doesn't compile,
> I don't install it.  :-)

This practice is too frightening to even imagine.  If our phone system
hiccups, people start screaming.  If it stopped working for an hour,
someone could lose their job.

Having a known-working, well-tested, stable version of Asterisk that I
could trust to not crash - even if doesn't have all the bells and
whistles - would allow me to put Asterisk into production here at the
Hospital where I maintain the network.  "Current CVS" is never tested
more than a month since the last change.  I run "current CVS" at another
site with fewer users, where they are much more tolerant of service
outages (mainly because the service runs over a wireless link that is
not 100% reliable anyway).

I strongly support keeping three versions of Asterisk:
  1. STABLE      - tested for extended period with no known critical
                   bugs (for use in production).
  2. TESTING     - snapshot of CVS that is undergoing field testing
  3. CURRENT CVS - bleeding-edge, development version

Periodically, Mark could tag a version of the CVS that he's comfortable
with for extended testing.  This would be called TESTING. Then, I could
install that in my "friendly" site and give it some mileage.  After this
version has been working without problems for some length of time, it
would replace the current STABLE snapshot.

Whenever enough people build up enough confidence in the TESTING
version, it could move to STABLE, and Mark could pick a version of CVS
that he thinks will not fall down right away, and make a new TESTING.
The only difficult part would be maintaining the TESTING version as
fixes are applied to it to make it more "stable".

Sincerely
Bill Jennings
Jennings Computing Services