[Zope] Ruling from the bench regarding 'Hotfixes' :)

Brian Lloyd brian.lloyd@zope.com
Fri, 24 Aug 2001 15:03:53 -0400


> I disagree -- there needs to be a clearer distinction between
> products that
> add new functionality and those that change existing behavior.
>
> We need
> some clearly defined terms for these areas.  That much is obvious
> - already
> the user (product building) community has interpreted the word 'hotfix'
> differently than ZC has intended...
>
> Some pithy names would go a long way towards this goal -- HotPatch - very
> evocative!

My argument is that that is a documentation issue. If people strongly
disagree and think that new jargon needs to be invented, that's ok,
but the new jargon should not be "Hotxxx" or anything that could be
confused with "hotfix", for jargon-backward-compatibility reasons.


> I for one would like to be able to do Product searches and have a list for
> Core Enhancements as separate from Added Functionality...

I don't really understand the distinction as put here. To me,
a product just lets me do something that I wouldn't be able to do
without it. Core Session Tracking is both a core enhancement and
added functionality. I suspect you mean "products that add new
objects" and "products that modify existing objects". I suspect
that is not a primary criteria most people would use to look for
products (though this is separate from the jargon issue - it is
really a categorization issue).

>From the jargon standpoint, I could see some piece of jargon
that equals what we currently call "monkey patch" being useful
as a shorthand amongst product developers (but it should not be
a word that can be confused with hotfix).


Brian Lloyd        brian@zope.com
Zope Corporation   www.zope.com