Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Andrew Johnson <[email protected]> · Wed, 31 Jan 2018 11:50:24 -0600

Hi Lewis,

On 01/31/2018 10:25 AM, J. Lewis Muir wrote:
> I really appreciate the blurb that was added to explain the version 
> numbering system and how to know if something is considered suitable 
> for production use.  However, now I'm wishing for a similar blurb 
> about the different release series types.  For example, there's 
> 3.14.12.7, 3.15.5, and 3.16.1.  According to the version numbering 
> system, all of those are suitable for production use.  I'm wishing 
> for a blurb that can help me know which series I should choose. Ralph
> Lange gave a good start to this in:
> 
> https://epics.anl.gov/tech-talk/2016/msg01398.php
> 
> except now 3.14.x is labeled "maintenance," and that hasn't been 
> defined.  And of course there's also now the EPICS 7.0 series labeled
> "new major release" for which I also don't know the definition.

I just added this wording to the base/index page, which may help clarify
things a little:

> What do the descriptive terms next to the above series mean? Most of 
> them don't have any formal definition, they're just to give an 
> indication whether we're still developing new features for them 
> and/or applying bug-fixes. Here's the main point: The core epics 
> developers work for organizations that still use (or are under 
> contract to maintain) those release series which are not marked as 
> "closed". New features are normally developed for and added to the 
> latest release series only (although that partly depends on who is 
> writing the code), but bug-fixes and updated operating system
> support get applied to the earliest series that make sense.
> 
> Note that we make no explicit promises about continued future 
> maintenance. When the APS Accelerator eventually stops using the
> 3.14 series that too will probably be closed (unless someone else
> funds continuing maintenance of it). A similar rule applies to
> operating system support — if you are the only site using an OS or an
> older OS version you will have to step up to keep newer releases of
> Base running on it. This is all a question of funding, we can only
> work on what our employers are willing to pay for.
> 
> So which of the above series should you pick for a project? That
> choice depends on many things. If you need to use features that are
> only available in the latest release series then the choice is clear,
> but if not and you are fairly new to EPICS it might be better to
> avoid the newest series because tutorials and/or support software
> such as Asyn or other driver/device support might not have been
> updated yet to build on that series. In general though we suggest
> using the newest series that you can since it will be maintained for
> longer.

HTH,

- Andrew

-- 
Arguing for surveillance because you have nothing to hide is no
different than making the claim, "I don't care about freedom of
speech because I have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowdon

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System