Comments on: PodPress and WordPress 2.6: A Quick Update

By: Syed Shams Ali

Syed Shams Ali — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 05:24:02 +0000

After see this i just say this SUPERB

By: Carl Thomas

Carl Thomas — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:53:05 +0000

Can’t someone who knows how to do it just fix the code and fork the project? If the podpress folks decide to fix it the fork could die.

Also, is there consensus on which fix the average user should use? Is no revisions the answer? I have not upgraded because I cant risk being down.

By: Sahdow

Sahdow — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 20:45:29 +0000

As one of the people who made a pledge, I think we could get more support if people knew how to get to that page, it’s pretty burried. If it weren’t for the fact I can’t get any of the fixes to work on a couple of installations – I probably wouldn’t have found it.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:08:59 +0000

@Jason
Well it’s not just that WP provides an advanced copy to developers. Anyone can get it. Many non-developers want to be able to test their site or plugins they use prior to the official release coming out. Some people just like playing with the latest version.
If a plugin developer doesn’t, that’s on them.
The fact that Matt and Co. developed the fix for a particular plugin shows just how much they care about the WordPress and Open Source community.

By: David Peralty

David Peralty — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:33:11 +0000

For me, the biggest issue with everything is that the WordPress team provided a fix for PodPress, but it wasn’t committed and released as an interim release because the guy that writes PodPress wants to expand its support for other publishing platforms (Drupal, I think).

So not only can plugin developers try out nightly versions of new releases, but also beta was out a month before the final version. So there was TONS of time for an 8.8.1 release that works with WordPress 2.6. I think its actually quite shameful that we haven’t seen a release, and I wish that the community would step in, get the fix from Automattic and release an 8.8.1 outside of the normal Mightyseek releases.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:29:41 +0000

Agreed – as I have since discovered that advance copies were provided and that WP even went so far as to provide a fix for the plugin developer, which I will grant is way above and beyond. I do agree that the onus for the update falls on the plugin developer and not WP – what I was unaware of though was that WP provides an advance copy to these developers. As stated above, this does completely change the context, so my previous comments are mitigated by this information.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:45:00 +0000

@Jason

WordPress did give them an advance copy.
http://wordpress.org/download/svn/

If a plugin developer doesn’t take advantage of that, it’s not their fault. Does Windows release early versions for Beta testers as well as for hardware/software developers? Of course. I had Vista many many months before it was released. Not that I write any Windows software that is vital to the Windows community, but still, had I not made sure my software were up to date, Microsoft would neither have held my hand nor received blame for any incompatibilities.

Many people download the latest development version of WordPress. Some for testing their plugins, some for Beta testing WordPress, some just to live on the edge. You can also keep up with Trac to know what changes have been made and potential changes are being suggested.

So should Matt hold the hand of plugin developers who are too busy with their professional (paying) lives to always be 100% available for their plugin maintenance? Maybe when 2.7 comes out if All in One SEO Pack doesn’t work I’ll let Matt remind me to fix it. Since obviously it will be Automattic’s fault if I don’t update it.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:16:12 +0000

Really? I didn’t know that plugin developers had an advanced copy, nor that the WP had a fix that had not been committed yet. This significantly changes my perspective on the root problem analysis.

By: David Peralty

David Peralty — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:29:49 +0000

I think the biggest issue you are both skipping over is that everyone had advanced beta copies of the WordPress release for nearly a month before it was finalized. Now we are more than a month into the 2.6 code base, and still no update.

Even worse, Matt Mullenweg himself said they had a fix for 2.6 users and that it hasn’t been committed yet.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:01:13 +0000

With all due respect to your software development skills, (and I am sure they are just scary awesome), when Windows, Mac, or any major player is planning an update to their OS that is major (or a new OS completely), they give developers betas of the stuff to run through tests so the developers can have updates available for when it is released. I see no indication that WordPress did so with podpress despite its enormous popularity.

Furthermore, why are you lashing out at me? What did I do to break podpress? Absolutely nothing! I am simply pointing out that perhaps WordPress developers might be a little more cognizant that they are not the only fishes in the pond, and in a sea of open sourced goodness, someone else is likely to come along offering developers of plugins advance notice of updates and patches so as to ensure that not only the core (wordpress) but the peripherals (plugins) have both a stable and development version. WordPress does no such thing.

Now, for those who are keeping score, he says my analogy is flawed…let me spell it out in simple terms:

WordPress = Windows
podpress = Linksys

If you believe for one minute that Windows (Microsoft) does not give Linksys advance copies of their OS for development testing, you are srely mistaken. Even one look at Adobe and their beta programs for Photoshop, Flash, CS3, CS4, and the entire suite of programs – they have betas we don’t know about, but insiders of the industry have. Then they have Public betas, and then finally a shipped version.

Then, after all that, about a month or so after the shipped version hits, a last update is made x.1 or x.0.1 or whatever to flesh out the last of the glitches.

Seriously, look at PS, LR, Flash, and virtually every other incarnation of any software, whether it be a CMS, program, or source kernel, this same pattern can be seen industry-wide. Simple acknowledgement from WP develoeprs that they may want to slow down future releases to let plugin developers catch up would be all that’s needed here, not defensive ego slams. Don’t lecture me on how and when I upgrade – be happy you have early adopters – it’s us that allow the glitches to flesh themselves out. Without the early adopters you would have no user base.

‘Nuff said – hopefully the analogy is clearer now…