Re: Release notes and readme files

[Joe Malin <jmalin -at- jmalin -dot- com>]

I also find that the requirement for Release Notes/readmes/etc varies
with the audience.

I would not put important information in a readme or Release Note for
commercial consumer software that otherwise had a manual, since I would
not expect the customer to read it. I also wouldn't release a list of
known bugs, since the customer might misinterpret it.

I worked at Oracle before, and we *always* released a list of known bugs
and fixed bugs. That way, our customers would know if a release was safe
to put on their system. They also knew if it fixed a particular problem
they were having. I did expect these customers to read the Release
Notes. We used Release Notes for information that applied to a very
small subclass of customers using special platforms, special
combinations of products, and so forth.

Having worked in just about every software environment you can think of
(and some you *can't*), I always browse through all the documentation
and the readme/release notes/install files before I start out. Of
course, I also register just about everything I buy; I was in marketing
once, so I know how much time, effort, and money people put into
registration.

As for bugs versus features, that's been around forever. I have
somewhere a cartoon; it's divided into two panels. The first panel shows
a cockroach-like thing, and underneath it the caption "Bug". The next
panel shows the same cockroach, but this one is wearing what looks like
a formal dinner jacket with tails (and multiple arms). The caption, of
course, is "Feature". This thinking is endemic to the software biz; my
friends know that I will criticize a particularly egregious, silly, or
otherwise outrageous problem with the sardonic comment: "It's a feature."

Joe

John Posada wrote:
>> "According to most of the development people I've worked with,
>> there is no such thing as a bug.  It's just an undocumented
>> feature."
>>     
>
> I've never had a developer say this without smiling afterwards. A
> developer knows a bug when they see one.
>
> Back to the question...
>
> The difference between a Release Note and a readme is timing. A
> Release Note is a fully formed and formatted book containing Known
> Issues, Enhancements, and Fixes since the last release, and a readme
> is a text file containing everything that was discovered but was too
> late to get into any of the documentation.
>
>
>
>   
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