Re: On Contributing To Emacs

[Tim Cross]

Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com> writes:

> xenodasein--- via "Emacs development discussions." <emacs-devel@gnu.org>
> writes:
>
>> - Development velocity is glacial. With releases around once per year
>> and there being no easily accessible distribution mechanism for
>> development updates,
>
> Our core packages can be released straight from master to GNU ELPA
> within 24 hours.  All you need to do, once it is set up (which in itself
> is trivial), is to bump the version header.  This is already the case
> with for example flymake.el and python.el.
>
> So while I agree that it would be good if Emacs could release major
> versions more often (we currently release every two years, AFAICT),
> I don't think this stops packages developed directly on master from
> following a much more frequent release schedule.

I'm not sure more frequent releases of core Emacs is really that
beneficial. A piece of software like Emacs is very mature and the core
does not change that quickly. Less mature and more rapidly evolving
software needs shorter release cycles, but as a system matures, the
cycles generally become longer. Releasing once every 12 months would be
OK if we have the resources to achieve that, but I think for the core
Emacs release, every 24 months is quite reasonable (though, I also
remember a time when new Emacs versions took multiple years, so current
release cycles seem pretty speedy compared to pre-20).