[wix-devs] WiX 4.0 Progress Report

[Rob Mensching]

I wish we were at the point that I could essentially countdown the issues for WiX v4 release.

I do need write a summary of WiX v4 since the goalposts have moved quite a bit since the last time I blogged about it.

Bob will scoff at any timeline I put out since much of WiX v4's progress is dependent on our load at FireGiant. The more FireGiant customers that ask for WiX v4, the more resources we put towards accelerating its completion.

At this point, I think an "early adopter preview" is likely in the next 6 months. Feedback will then tell us how far we are from production status.

Major version transitions are extremely challenging. WiX v2 to v3 felt exactly the same. Users want us to focus on maintaining v3 but to move the WiX Toolset forward we need to focus on v4. 

In a few months, I expect (maybe it's simply hope) details are regularly shared here how to test private builds of WiX v4.

At the same time, the answer to WIX v3 questions will regularly be, "No, it is or will be addressed in v4."

(I will eventually turn this into a blog post, but all of my nonessential tasks are currently postponed to after mid-February)

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-devs <wix-devs-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> On Behalf Of Edwin Castro via wix-devs
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2018 1:10 PM
To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List <wix-devs at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Cc: Edwin Castro <egcastr at gmail.com>
Subject: [wix-devs] WiX 4.0 Progress Report

I've been listening in on the various conversations going on for WiX 4.0. I
find those discussions fascinating. The discussion on micro repos got be
wondering if WiX 4.0 progress is getting shared anywhere. I looked through
the blogs listed at http://wixtoolset.org/news/ but they don't generally
contain much information on how much is done nor how much is left.

I'm personally curious on how much is left with the understanding that
things change and what is left can sometimes increase unexpectedly as more
is learned throughout the project. Ultimately, my goal is to get a sense of
when, approximately, WiX 4.0 will become available. Weeks, months,
quarters, years? I don't expect it to be weeks but I'm hoping it is very
unlikely to be years.

There was a time when Rob's blog had posts on stabilization efforts for the
version of WiX under development at the time (v3.6? I can't remember).
Getting a sense of how many bugs were getting added and fixed through time
really helped get sense of when the release might happen. That reminds me
that I should look at open issues. That might help give me a sense of what
is currently planned.

--
Edwin G. Castro
____________________________________________________________________
WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List provided by FireGiant http://www.firegiant.com/