[Scribus] Announce 1.3.2 String Freeze

[Craig Ringer]

Calum Polwart wrote:
> On Thu, 2006-01-12 at 15:05 +0100, Craig Bradney wrote:
>> Hi All
>>
>> This is just a quick email to announce string freeze for 1.3.2 release. We 
>> expect to release within 2-3 weeks. Updated ts/po/qm files will be in CVS in 
>> a few hours..
> Just out of curiosity what is a string freeze?

We spend a few weeks where we don't alter user visible text in Scribus. 
That gives translators time to catch up, without feeling like they're 
chasing a target that's constantly running away. It's also usual to 
spend the string freeze period trying to track down and fix some of the 
nastier bugs in current CVS, so that a somewhat more stable than usual 
snapshot of 1.3 cvs can be released.

> What will be released?  A stable version? 

No, in this case the freeze is for 1.3.2, so it'll be a snapshot of the 
development series. That's a release that's a bit safer and more stable 
than the actual devel CVS mainline, but not in any way a "stable" 
release in the formal sense of the word. Given how many people use 1.3.x 
routinely, though, I expect it'll get used as if it was a formal stable 
release by quite a lot of folks.

You can compare 1.3.x snapshot releases to the Linux 2.5.x releases. 
They're not stable releases, they're just milestones in development 
where we're pretty sure it won't actually climb out of your computer 
looking for more valuable data to munch on ;-) . Of course, Scribus is 
almost infinitely likely to eat your data than an experimental kernel 
snapshot, but hey, it's just an analogy.

A similar procedure is used when doing a true stable release, eg for 
1.2.5. We freeze strings for a few weeks to let translators catch up, 
fix some bugs, and tag the release.

--
Craig Ringer