Re: Warning on unreleased versions.

[Ben Pfaff]

On Fri, Feb 26, 2016 at 07:03:51PM +0100, John Darrington wrote:
> Alan takes the view that users should not be discouraged to try the latest 
> git snapshots,
> whereas the decision to add this notice to those snapshots was taken in order 
> to ensure
> that users are fully aware of what they are getting.   I don't think that 
> these two goals
> need to be mutually exclusive.
> 
> How would it be if we changed this notice to:
> 
> "This version is intended for testing purposes only. Please report any 
> problems."
> 
> I think that will make it clear that problems *might* occur, without 
> frightening or
> intimidating the user.

I've been following this discussion but I've refrained from commenting
until now.

I don't like to tell users not to use a given version of PSPP because
it's just for testing, and I appreciate that our packagers package not
just releases but also development versions.  After all, if users do not
have a way to run development versions, then they will not get tested
and thus will not serve their purpose for testing!

On the other hand, I think users should be informed that a given version
of PSPP is likely to have more bugs than one would ordinarily expect
from a PSPP release.  I think we can make that clear, however, without
the shrillness and placement of the current warning.

I think that an appropriately worded notice can make all of this clear.
For example:

    This is a development version of PSPP.  Please be alert to the
    likely possibility that it contain more bugs than a PSPP release.
    If you encounter bugs, please consider reporting them to the PSPP
    developers at address@hidden, to enable them to be fixed.