[WriteLog] What should change in WriteLog w.r.t. this review?

[Jim Reisert AD1C]

Hi Wayne, thanks for reading the review and writing this.  I will admit that I
have not read it myself, but my comments are general enough that it should not
matter.

--- "W. Wright, W5XD" <w5xd at writelog.com> wrote:

> 4. The review takes away points from WL because we don't update the software
> in real time during contest weekends and "updates come out infrequently". I
> have been reasonably happy with our beta test/release process (which
> routinely catches a number of bugs before they go out to thousands of
> users), but that process pretty much guarantees that from a request to a
> commercial release is a minimum of 4 to 6 weeks as that's how long it takes
> to get through the beta test process. Would users really prefer that the
> beta tests be publically available?

With all due respect to Ken Wolff, K1EA, the CT release model is broken.  Ken
just throws something out there, and invariably breaks something in the
process. In five years, I have never seen a Writelog release take a step
backwards.  I think the beta testing model is working perfectly fine.  If there
is a high-priority problem, you can put out a patch like you have done in the
past.

> 5. The reviewer had 3 or 4 month old information regarding the way we manage
> the country files and multiplier files, so his specific complaints are
> inaccurate, but it still raises the question of how that should be done. The
> WriteLog FULL distributions have copies of those files that were current
> when the distribution was created, and the UPGRADE distributions do NOT have
> the files at all. This means that you have to download the new files, and
> you get notices on writelog at contesting.com when they change. I don't think
> its a good idea to embed those files in the UPGRADE installs because I think
> there should be exactly one way for a user to get the latest files and some
> users don't upgrade right before the contest, and some users upgrade their
> software, but not necessarily to the most recent version (and so would get
> old files if the UPGRADE had them).

The current model is fine.  Ken also does not include updated country files in
the update releases. After 10 years (yes, that's how long I've been doing
this), the "release model" should be widely known.  It seems fairly obvious to
get the current files by going to Writelog's "Downloads" page. Yes, it's an
extra step beyond updating the software, but the two efforts are independent.

73 - Jim AD1C


=====
Jim Reisert AD1C, 7 Charlemont Court, North Chelmsford, MA 01863
USA +978-251-9933, <jjreisert at alum.mit.edu>, http://www.ad1c.com
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