Re: LYNX-DEV Old question - 2-4-2 vs 2-4-FM

[Foteos Macrides]

Al Gilman <address@hidden> wrote:
>  From: Wayne Buttles <address@hidden>
>  
>  If the true answer is a faq, just point me in the right direction.  I have
>  seen a lot of talk while searching through the archives, but I could never
>  find the answer.  Which came first, lynx 2-4-2 or 2-4-FM?  I am kind of
>  cloudy on when `FM' started and if other development stopped or if there
>  were two versions in the works for a period of time.
>  
>There was a lot of concurrency.  Fote did [a lot of] the initial
>VMS port.

        I did the VMS port of Lynx2-1, and kept up the VMS port while
Lou continued the Unix development through Lynx2-3, i.e., until he
graduated and left in May 1994.  In keeping up the port, I also picked
up familarity with the for-Unix code, and of course, the common code,
so at some point I ended up with an account at UKans where Lou and I
would exchange the code and make sure it was OK for both Unix and VMS
before making it available generally.


>         I don't know when exactly he started using the FM
>suffix but it goes back into the time period when there was
>material progress still being made at UKans.  But by the time of
>2.3.8, we have a Kansas version number which is a relabel of the
>-FM version with essentially no local [Kansas] contribution.  [...]

        When Lou graduated and left, Garrett Blythe, who had done
DOSLynx, also became in charge of the Unix/VMS distribution.
Garrett put out Lynx2-3-1 in August 1994, in conjuction with
leaving UKans, but it was still too buggy to use in production.
Lynx2-3-2 through Lynx2-3-7 were "patch levels" handled by me --
really as patches to Lynx2-3 -- and that's when I developed the
conviction that patches handled as patches rather than file sets
don't work out well other than for developers.  So Lynx2-3-7 was
archived at UKans as a complete file set.

        Subsequent develpment code was labeled Lynx2-3FM and distributed
as daily updates of a complete file set, because I couldn't cope with
the confusion and foul ups associated with patches for non-developers.

                                Fote

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