Title: Tough Situation, Should I Switch Back?
Let me apologize in advance for being such a pain about this. I have asked for a tag, or whatever you want to call it, for the 0.99.1pre1 release several times now. I have received no direct response from any core developer as to why this is not a good thing. In fact, on that issue, I have received no response at all.
I tried to explain my request in my earlier post. I will not repeat that discussion here. I thought the request was reasonable.
I had to release our software (which includes a Wireshark plugin set) yesterday using trunk-1.0, which I had to assume was the correct thing to do because there is no information on what was used to build 0.99.1pre1. Right now, that is the only version that I can tell roughly 50 engineers to download and use to match the build of my plugins. It appears that there is no plugin compatibility between Ethereal 0.99.0 and Wireshark 0.99.1pre1, so I cannot have then download Wireshark and build against Ethereal. Of course I cannot even promise them that my plugins will work, because I don't know what has been checked in to trunk-1.0 (which I have now read was a "failure") since the time it was (I assume) used to build 0.99.1pre1. To be honest, based on the little that I have read it seems like there is not a clear understanding of how subversion should be used to manage your project - but that is a very different topic that I have already given up on.
I really had hoped that I could get this whole Ethereal -> Wireshark transition done as part of this release (of our software), but based on the discussions that I have read, and on the lack of discussion related to my tag request, I am left wondering. It was a relatively tough sell for me to get management to authorize my switching from Ethereal to Wireshark. I believed that it was the right decision based on the information that I had. I still want to believe that. My gut says to follow the developers. I've been writing software for 25 years - I understand and respect the effort and sacrifice that you have all made.
So, my final plea. Will one of the 6-8 primary contributors please tell me why there is no tag for 0.99.1pre1? Can you say whether or not there will be tags for future releases (some recent postings lead me to wonder)? At least with these answers I can make a decision as to whether I should switch back to Ethereal for this release and switch later when you are all ready, or stick it out here. I am not dismissing the massive amount of work that you have done already. I wish that I could do more to help your efforts, but right now the best I can do is to get others to use your tools. I find it hard to believe that after all your work it should be compromised by not issuing a simple svn cp command.
Sorry again for being such a pain. I'll shut up and listen now. I wish you all the best of luck.
Bryant Eastham
Chief Architect
Panasonic Electric Works Laboratory of America, Inc.
Salt Lake City Lab
4525 South Wasatch Blvd., Suite 100, Salt Lake City, Utah 84124
Phone : 801.993.7124 Email: beastham@xxxxxxxxxxx
Fax: 801.993.7260 Web: http://slc.mew.com
