This question has come up increasingly in the forums and IRC recently, with all the buzz that's been going on about the installer, etc. and I remember it also coming up a lot during the HEAD => 4.7 release cycle.

It would be great to get the pros/cons of this documented for once in the handbook so we can refer people to that page.

We could maybe start with some of the stuff in this reply: http://drupal.org/node/79006#comment-145788

But I'm thinking this probably needs to be fleshed out more, to go into more detail.

Anyone have some feedback they'd like to put here? (especially would be interesting coming from people who were building sites at the time of the HEAD => 4.7 release cycle, both the "victims" ;) and those for whom it was made easier.)

Comments

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

You mean more then is already documented here?
http://drupal.org/handbook/version-info

We could add to that page the stuff about code freeze and something nice and polite that says 'if you have to ask' then you shouldn't use HEAD.

It makes the page long but with versioning and such I'd rather it be in one place for one referal link.

zirafa’s picture

zirafa commented

My personal preference is to develop against the last stable version. However, I try and keep up with changes in HEAD and make a note of what I'll have to do to upgrade. That way when HEAD branches I already have digested the things to do (for the most part). I can understand why some like to keep up with HEAD though. It doesn't seem like one way is really 'better' than the other, though.

zirafa’s picture

zirafa commented

Keeping up with HEAD:

PROS:

  • stay on top of changes
  • less work per change
  • early release time

CONS:

  • it takes effort to constantly check for changes
  • possibility of things breaking
  • harder to troubleshoot problems?

Waiting for the stable branch:
PROS:

  • easier to debug
  • no work required to keep up with changes

CONS:

  • if you wait till the end, you may have TONS of changes to make all at once (i.e. form API!)
  • there may be so many changes to make it pushed back your development considerably (almost to the next cycle)
webchick’s picture

webchick
she/they
Primary language English
Location Vancouver 🇨🇦
commented

Good point, sepeck. I forgot about that page. But that seems it's more geared more toward people downloading Drupal for the first time. I'm more addressing this towards site architects who want to build their site on Drupal but need some guidance on which one to go with. They could probably be merged into the same doc, or at least one pointing to the other.

Zirafa: thanks, good points. :) I'll try and brainstorm some others, too.

chx’s picture

chx commented

it should be noted that while you may develop HEAD but never, ever run a production site with HEAD. There are no database updates provided between different states of HEAD. And you can not expect that HEAD won't make spinach salad out of your DB. I remember that sometimes it did.

Also, sometimes security holes appear in HEAD to be closed without any announcement.

drewish’s picture

drewish commented

i say if you don't have a hard deadline, develop for HEAD. you'll find (and hopefully be able to help fix) bugs and you'll be in a position to help determine the direction of drupal development. plus HEAD is where all the cool stuff is. that and you'll get all kinds of good karam for submitting patches for the contrib modules you need to use ;)

sun’s picture

sun
Primary language German
Location Karlsruhe
commented
Component: Admin Guide » Developer Guide

Very interesting question. Applies not only to Drupal core. I asked myself today regarding CCK (=> 4.7.0 is stable and developing features and patches is doable - but they won't apply against current HEAD of CCK).

Shouldn't the Component be Developer Guide?

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

all right, I've reconsidered after IRC chat. A page inthe developers handbook definitly would be a good idea. There's a whole lot of reasons to NOT develop on HEAD and some for developing when the freeze hits but a lot is very conditional on skills, involvement in the community, deadline to live site.

Some could probably be pulled form the existing one and linked to the dev one.

ronaldmulero’s picture

ronaldmulero commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

old issue