-=PCTechTalk=- (Fwd) Pegasus Mail v4.02 pre-announcement
- From: "Grant Karpik" <gkarpik@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 01:04:58 -0700
For any users of Pegasus Mail out there:
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Priority: normal
Date sent: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 16:45:59 +1200
Send reply to: Pegasus Mail Announcements <PM-NEWS@xxxxxxxxxxx>
From: David Harris <David.Harris@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Organization: Pegasus Mail, Dunedin, New Zealand
Subject: Pegasus Mail v4.02 pre-announcement
To: PM-NEWS@xxxxxxxxxxx
In the next 36 hours, I will finally be releasing Pegasus Mail v4.02.
The original plan was to release this back in April and get going on
v4.1, but as so often happens, circumstance has intervened and once
again I am doing a release later than I wanted.
This message, then, serves three purposes:
1: To tell you that v4.02 is imminent.
2: To apologize for the delays in the release and explain as best I
can why they have happened.
3: To tell you what I plan to do to streamline things in future.
Number 1 I have already done (hey, that rhymes!). As for point 2, I
wholeheartedly apologize for taking so long to get v4.02 out; it
contains over 400 bug fixes, some of which are quite important, and I
regret having inconvenienced my loyal user community by delaying these
corrections.
So why has it taken so long to get v4.02 out? There are many reasons...
First on the list is a nebulous concept called "user expectation".
These
days, users' expectations of what a software release should be are sky-
high compared with what they were even five years ago. As a result, the
actual process of releasing a new version has itself become massively
time-consuming, with repetetive testing regimes and a level of nit-
picking that would have been unimaginable when I started writing the
program. Some of the 400 changes in v4.02 are so small that practically
nobody will consciously notice them, but they are all part of a much
larger concept called "polish". The things that lead people to
criticize
a program for "looking dated" or "being ugly" are often as tiny as an
item being a pixel out of alignment here or there in a dialog, and they
all have to be fixed as part of making a better whole.
When I started writing Pegasus Mail back in 1989, I used to yearn for
every release - it was exciting, because I got to show people the cool
new things I'd done. These days, I dread release time almost above all
else, because it's arduous, tedious and seems to be interpreted by some
an open invitation for criticism and complaint (sic transit gloria
internet). As I am a (relatively) normal human being, then, the actual
process of making a release now often feels in itself like a test of
character.
The second source of the delay is simply a matter of resources.
Irrespective of the outcome of the now largely-irrelevant and futile
DoJ case against Microsoft, the simple reality is that Microsoft
destroyed the well-established marketplace for competetive e-mail
packages when they started bundling Outlook with Windows; that damage
is done, and it cannot be reversed. As with all developers, Microsoft's
practices have impacted on me directly, but I at least have the
advantage of being smaller than most. In the course of the last two
years, I have gone through massive restructuring here, the last phase
of which was the shedding of my final staff member in October last
year. By reducing my overheads to almost nothing, I have ensured the
ongoing survival of the system, but at the cost of having to do more of
everything on my own.
So, just like it was in 1993, I now sit alone in my office doing all
the work - writing the code and manuals, processing the orders,
handling the licensed technical support... If it weren't for a group of
incredibly dedicated volunteers who help with the general technical
support, I simply wouldn't be able to continue. As it stands, I am
spread way too thin, and an inevitable side-effect of this is that I am
no longer doing anything as efficiently as I might. Consequently,
releases are taking longer, even over and above the technical reasons I
described above for the delays.
The situation is complicated. I work six or often seven days a week,
and haven't personally had more than 5 days' holiday in a row for more
than three years now... Without staff, it's hard to see how that can
change, but the financial situation is now such that although I believe
I can continue to operate indefinitely at current levels, I cannot
afford to hire staff, nor see any prospect of being able to do so.
The final reason for the delay in getting v4.02 out is because it's a
major watershed release. In many ways, it's what v4.01 should probably
have been - it's been through at least fourteen betas, which is quite
amazing considering how little different it appears on the surface from
v4.01. V4.02, I believe, finally completes the transition of the system
from v3.x to v4.x and gives a genuinely solid base for the development
of the major new functionality that will be appearing in v4.1 later
this
year.
So then: what am I going to do to try and reduce delays like this in
future? I have a number of ideas that I thought I would share with you.
1: Patch releases. One of the reasons why releases are so difficult is
the amount of co-ordination and testing required to produce a fully-
integrated installer archive. Starting with v4.02, I plan to add a
"patches" section to the downloads page on our web site where we can
make available cut-down interim versions of the program that fix
specific problems. These "cut-down" versions will be effectively
unsupported, and will require some technical competence to install and
use - i.e, we'll probably just give a ZIP file with a very terse readme
describing the patch. There will be no installer, and no specific
technical support available for patches, but they will fill the gaps
between major releases.
2: Public-access betas. At times when we believe the program is stable
during the beta testing and development process, my beta test team and
I
may occasionally release a public beta for people to try out. Public
betas will be available on the same "patches" page on the web site, and
will be completely unsupported - people can use them at their own risk
if they are interested in seeing where we are going.
3: Smaller bites. Starting with v4.1, I intend to work on single
features until they are complete, then release a version of the
program at that point. This should mean more regular releases with
fewer new features in each, allowing a less jerky transition for the
user base. Ideally, I would like to aim for three significant releases
a year, at approximately four- month intervals.
4: Opening up parts of the development process. While I'm still not
willing to contemplate going Open Source with Pegasus Mail, the reality
is that I am stretched too thin to be able to cope with the full range
of demands that face modern software - things like import/export
utilities, PIM interfaces and so forth. I would like to open those
parts of the system to responsible developers or development teams on a
collaborative basis. What I have in mind is that people with expertise
in areas like Palm Conduits or MAPI interfaces will work closely with
me to produce a module that is integrated into the program as a
standard feature, or is supported and distributed as a standard utility
from the official web and FTP sites. As with translation, this is not a
trivial thing, and only genuinely committed developers would probably
find this rewarding, but if you think you have what it takes to produce
a standard part of the system, please contact me directly.
Well, that was wordy, wasn't it... If you've read this far then I
admire your stamina. :-) Seriously, though, the last couple of years
have been quite hard and I won't deny that I've had some major morale
problems at times, but I've come through them and am now looking
forward to working on exciting new things for v4.1. Thanks for your
support, and I hope you like v4.02.
Cheers!
-- David --
------------------ David Harris -+- Pegasus Mail ----------------------
Box 5451, Dunedin, New Zealand | e-mail: David.Harris@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Phone: +64 3 453-6880 | Fax: +64 3 453-6612
Sign seen in a Norwegian cocktail lounge:
"Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar."
------- End of forwarded message -------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...a cat is a diagram and a pattern of subtle air...
Grant Karpik
gkarpik@xxxxxxxxx
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