(ITS#4787) Download links with version vs. date

[michael@stroeder.com]

Full_Name: Michael Ströder
Version: not relevant
OS: not relevant
URL: ftp://ftp.openldap.org/incoming/
Submission from: (NULL) (83.124.17.77)


HI!

It's hard for beginners to understand the download links here:
http://www.openldap.org/software/download/

The file names of latest release contains the release number but the file names
of releases tagged as "stable" contains the release date. Current example:

2.3.31
ftp://ftp.openldap.org/pub/OpenLDAP/openldap-release/openldap-2.3.31.tgz

2.3.27 (20060823)
ftp://ftp.openldap.org/pub/OpenLDAP/openldap-stable/openldap-stable-20060823.tgz

I see several problems with this current practice:

1. Common practice in other open source projects is to create file names with
dates only for CVS/SVN snapshots. So it might be hard for beginners to recognize
that these files are really stable releases even though the string "stable" is
also in the file name. Note that these .tar.gz files could be obtained from
another source, not directly from the official download page.

2. On the mailing lists always the version number is referred/proposed. But this
does not appear in the file name. And frankly no-one remembers the release
dates. Especially since also CHANGES does not contain the release dates. So the
only mapping is the download page.

3. Common practice is that the root directory name within the .tar.gz matches
the exact version in the .tar.gz file name.

=> I'd recommend to always create the same form of file names containing solely
the release version. I see no benefit in using the date at all.

Ciao, Michael.