Oolite Bulletins

I am confused seeing all kinds of installer for 1.65. Beta 3 after a seemingly final version, and a rc-1 in the mix. Could someone kindly sort them up and put them in chronological order? Thank you.

You want this one: OoliteInstall-v1.65.exe.

hwtan: beta versions are versions that are testing versions with new game-additions; often they work well enough to play with, but they may contain bugs, because there are new things in it, compared to the last full version of Oolite... So people willing to run these versions are called beta-testers, they run the version and report if there are problems.

Usualyy you have beta 1,2,3... each bigger number having new game additions and more bugs fixed....

Then when Giles thinks the Beta is problem-free, (last bugfixes applied) he releases a 'release candidate' (rc) This is also some kind of Beta, but there are no new game-things added, only bugfixes... is intended to be the final version, prior to releasing 'the real thing': a stable version of Oolite. Again people willing to do tests, download and play it and report back to Giles if there are problems. If there are no problems, Giles then releases the final or 'stable' version of a new Oolite game, so if you don't want to test potentially buggy versions, only download/play games which have only the version number and no 'beta' or 'rc' in their name...

It all runs thus:

Alpha versions: early dev versions. Normally, the public never get to see these. Giles calls them development versions. If you like, the nightly builds could be classed as Alphas, since they are not authorised stable versions.

Beta versions: these are versions classed as stable enough for the public to see and lend aid to the developer with bug features and enhancements both to look and usability. Depending on how much needs to be fixed there can be multiple beta versions, with the number rising with each release.

Release Candidates: Once all usability and major bugs have been fixed, a release candidate is a stable version which might only need a bit of tweaking. If the candidate is accepted by the community, then it is released as a full version. If more issues are discovered at this stage, then the author will fix them and release another release candidate until no issues are reported.

Final version: the release version.

I understand all these Beta, RC stuffs. My question is why are they posted in reversed order? I mean a beta 3 after a rc, or a seemingly final (or at least stable) 1.65 installer.

hwtan wrote:

I understand all these Beta, RC stuffs. My question is why are they posted in reversed order? I mean a beta 3 after a rc, or a seemingly final (or at least stable) 1.65 installer.

They all have the same status (announcement), so the order is determined by the last post date in each thread. Nothing that can be done about that, I'm afraid.

Of course, one might get rid of the older threads and leave only the latest one...

You should see only two files in the 1.65 area... the installer for the actual 1.65 release, and a replacement exe that I post every now and again with new experimental features.

I see, the oolite-1.65-tp3.exe is the replacement file.

yup, but you have to rename that exe to just oolite (making a backup of the original oolite.exe (i just re-named mine to oolite-old.exe))