[Inquisitor]

We're starting to get enough in this beast to start thinking about the frequency of pre-built binaries.

I am thinking once a month to start, then more frequently as more stuff gets in. For instance, I am sure everyone who doesn't have C++ skillz would like to play with the blinking lights once Kaz gets his pof editor sorted out, the increased table limits, and any of the other misc things we have done.

Does that sound frequent enough to folks? We're moving, but it's not exactly breakneck development.

[Sesquipedalian]

Yes, yes, yes!  Especially nice would be a periodic release of a built version of the engine in which all fully functional enhancments are included, aside from the monthly ones which may or may not have everything in them fully operational.

[penguin]

I was thinking whenever we have a "release" -- a significant new feature (or bugfix) is introduced.  This may be more or less frequent than once a month.  We should also cvs tag any release so that particular release can be grabbed out of CVS.

I suggest tag/release names similar to the GNU project... e.g., fs2_open2_0_0  -- the numbers are major/minor/bugfix numbers.

Although branching is discouraged, it would be useful for something that breaks backward compatibility.  Branch names should be more symbolic, e.g., NewTableFormat.

[Sesquipedalian]

Tags would be very useful.  Then a released campaign could include a note saying something like "Requires FS2 version 2.4.0 or higher" to let people know whether they'll need to download an updated version of the program (and thereby save the designers from having to include it all with the campaign release).