[Scummvm-devel] 1.0 or not 1.0? (was: ScummVM 1.0.0 release schedule)

[Travis Howell]

Oystein Eftevaag wrote:
> There's always going to be a feature X or support for game Y on the
> horizon that will be "nice to have" for a release. Delaying 1.0 for that
> is akin to sticking with your 28" CRT screen for years because LCDs are
> going to be even cheaper next year, or the next new display tech is just
> around the corner. You'll never get there.

Not a valid comparison at all, technology is always progressing, while
progress in ScummVM isn't like that at all. There can be rapid progress
on certain sections of code at times, while other sections of code don't
change for long periods of time.

This isn't a case of waiting indefinitely for 'feature X' or 'game Y'.
It is more waiting to integrate certain code (mainly GSoC 2009 tasks),
which have set time lines, and will be completed by a certain time.

Oystein Eftevaag wrote:
> The facts of the matter is that 95%+ of our users can play all of their
> supported games with no bugs or problems whatsoever. That, IMHO, is the
> only relevant criteria for whether something should still be beta status
> or not. Support for rare versions is nice, but hardly critical (because
> it impacts so very few users). More complete documentation would be nice
> too, but let's be honest, a large majority of users of any software
> product (and especially games) never read manuals in either case, so
> it's hardly release critical either (even if there was any progress
> being made here).

It would estimate more like 80-90% of users, have no major issues
playing their supported game under ScummVM.

Unfortunately not all  bugs/problems are actually reported, or reported
via the bug tracker (so can get forgotten/missed) either. Sometimes I
come across issues mentioned elsewhere (ie other forums), which are
never actually reported via our bug tracker.

For some users, it seems simpler to use alternative (ie dosbox), or not
worth the trouble to sign up to SourceForge, in order to report their
issues or problems.