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Old 07-21-2017, 04:59 AM   #4
Frenzie
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Posts: 1,611
Karma: 724945
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Antwerp
Device: Kobo Aura H2O
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Maltby View Post
The term "stable version" is a reference point to the code development, not really related to how stable the code performs.
I think that's slightly unfair and more accurately describes the explicitly tagged "nightlies". However, it's true that to some extent the word "stable" also means that most known issues remain stable, because every change might break something else. The devil you know and all that.

In any case, for the sake of other people reading this I'll include that the general distinction goes something like this:
  • Auto-generated nightlies. These are only available from the nightly build server directly. There's no human involvement here. Nightlies are automatically built once a day (proverbially at night). In principle quality could therefore range anywhere from horrific failure to stable.
  • Tagged nightlies. The ones you find on GitHub. These were briefly tested on the emulator and one or more real devices without finding anything obviously wrong.
  • Alpha. Basically the same as tagged nightlies but with the intent to primarily fix bugs that pop up so that it can go to beta.
  • Beta. Generally no new features and only bug fixing.
  • Stable. All bugs that cropped up during the alpha and beta (and RC) stages that were considered blockers have been fixed. During beta this should normally have been tested on all supported platforms.

I'd say that in KOReader the alpha and beta stages are somewhat less formal. Basically any time you don't see new features being added the program tends to creep toward stable whether it's a conscious effort or not.

tl;dr If that were all I'd tag the current code 2017.07 stable and be done with it as it's generally been good to me for quite a while now.
Quote:
That said; changes to the OS code, by kobo firmware updates can effect the programs that run under that OS. The "stable version" was probably quite stable when it was released, with the then current firmware.
Indeed. Had you (generic you) installed KOReader on one of the devices that were out two years ago you'd have enjoyed two years of stability. The KA1 came out less than a year ago. I'd say a better question is why Kobo incompatibly changed things on the software end when the new hardware doesn't seem to be capable of doing anything new. Unfortunately they're not trying to provide a stable platform for third-party developers, but that's a lot better than outright hostility!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Question Mark View Post
I initially made the same mistake thinking that a "stable version" would be preferable and more stable than a "nightly build".
That's not a mistake unless you have a specific reason not to use the stable version. Few reasons are more pressing than having an otherwise unsupported device. You should be perfectly fine using nightlies, but in that case you should also be prepared to roll back to the previous release if they break. A new stable is somewhat overdue though.
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