Status of FPC 3.4.0 or FPC 4.0.0 [major release]

[valdir.marcos]

FPC 3.2.0 [major release] was released on June 20, 2020. That's 5 years and 7 months ago.

FPC 3.2.0 Released!
https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,50274.0.html



FPC 3.2.2 [minor release] was released on May 21, 2021. That's 4 years and 8 months ago.

FreePascal 3.2.2 released!
https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,54712.0.html



FPC 3.2.4 [minor release] has been in preparation since October 25, 2021, but has not yet been released. That's 4 years and 3 months.

Preparing FPC 3.2.4, point out road blocks now
https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,56864.0.html



Since it is unlikely that FPC 3.4.0 or FPC 4.0.0 [major release] will be tested and released until June 2026 [5 months from now], we can round it up to 6 years without a new major release. I hope to be wrong about this statistically based prediction.

My obvious and fair question is what's the current status of FPC 3.4.0 or FPC 4.0.0 [major release]?

[marcov]

Major release, not yet in any preparatory state. I.e. releasing it hasn't been even discussed. Basically there are still too many bugs.

For a while a 3.2.4 release was worked on, but that seems to have stalled.

[valdir.marcos]

A cycle with such a long interval [6 years on June 2026] between major releases always causes numerous inconveniences and difficulties.

It's easy to see the enormity of the negative points. My obvious and fair question is what are the positive benefits [of such a long interval cycle - 6 years on June 2026 - between major releases]?

I will illustrate here with some simple examples of the unnecessary difficulties we have to overcome daily because of these long intervals between major releases:

Right, so the u-versions comes with fpc-3.3.1, thus I've attached the 'fv' directory from 3.3.1... Have fun 
Regards Benny

@Martin: I didn't report because I don't use fpc trunk, but nevertheless I test-installed and it turns out it's ok now - about an hour ago @MvC fixed the problem in FPC

There is a package fcl-css in trunk/main, but it afaik undocumented

I think this can be done using fcl-css. Below is a modified procedure for retrieving classes, IDs, and tags. You just need to expand the procedure that retrieves properties.

[Fred vS]

I will illustrate here with some simple examples of the unnecessary difficulties we have to overcome daily because of these long intervals between major releases:

For my part, what I find very annoying is that, as an open source project developer, I can only offer projects compiled with the official release of fpc, i.e. fpc 3.2.2, because distros only accept projects that can be compiled with official release versions.

[rasberryrabbit]

I hope the following bugs will be fixed in the new release. 3 of them are inline bug.

https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/fpc/source/-/issues/41581
https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/fpc/source/-/issues/41558
https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/fpc/source/-/issues/41556
https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/fpc/source/-/issues/41554
https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/fpc/source/-/issues/41536
https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/fpc/source/-/issues/41480
https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/fpc/source/-/issues/41225
https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/fpc/source/-/issues/41087
https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/fpc/source/-/issues/40291

[ALLIGATOR]

Can snapshot-based releases be useful? 

https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,73274.msg575037/topicseen.html

[LeP]

Can snapshot-based releases be useful? 

It depends on the reason you're proposing a project:
- if it's for hobby purposes, there's certainly no problem. Any bug will be tolerated (both in terms of quality and time to fix it), and a temporary fix can be found, even if it's not perfect.
- if, on the other hand, you're doing it for work, there can be no tolerance for bugs that "come and go": if you have several clients who work with your application and earn money, they'll certainly not be happy with any instability between software updates.
This is why there's such a high demand for STABLE versions. It's believed that these versions can maintain stability (especially compatibility) through any updates or patches.

[gidesa]

It depends on the reason you're proposing a project:
- if it's for hobby purposes, there's certainly no problem. Any bug will be tolerated (both in terms of quality and time to fix it), and a temporary fix can be found, even if it's not perfect.
- if, on the other hand, you're doing it for work, there can be no tolerance for bugs that "come and go": if you have several clients who work with your application and earn money, they'll certainly not be happy with any instability between software updates.
This is why there's such a high demand for STABLE versions. It's believed that these versions can maintain stability (especially compatibility) through any updates or patches.

I agree totally.
But such a long time between major releases can force people to abandon Fpc and migrate to other more supported languages. Especially if they earn money from Fpc programs. It's a "dog that bites its tail"!

[PascalDragon]

My obvious and fair question is what's the current status of FPC 3.4.0 or FPC 4.0.0 [major release]?

I'm rather confident in saying that there likely won't be a new major release in 2026. Not only hasn't 3.2.4 been released yet, main isn't even remotely in a release-worthy state due to various major issues (and no, not the inline ones).

[dsiders]

My obvious and fair question is what's the current status of FPC 3.4.0 or FPC 4.0.0 [major release]?

I'm rather confident in saying that there likely won't be a new major release in 2026. Not only hasn't 3.2.4 been released yet, main isn't even remotely in a release-worthy state due to various major issues (and no, not the inline ones).

@PascalDragon

I appreciate your presence here on the forums, and your frank and forthcoming commentary. Thank you.

[Bart]

Not only hasn't 3.2.4 been released yet

What needs to be done to get 3.2.4 on the road?
Are there blocking issues or is it "just" a matter of not enough time and/or manpower to make it happen?

Bart

[PascalDragon]

Are there blocking issues or is it "just" a matter of not enough time and/or manpower to make it happen?

The later.

Though there are some fixes that should be merged back from main so that the build is really useable (e.g. a fix for current macOS).

[Bart]

Can we (the community) help in any way?

Bart

[JuhaManninen]

The later.
Though there are some fixes that should be merged back from main so that the build is really useable (e.g. a fix for current macOS).

Should be merged but nobody does it. Nobody is interested to get a release out.
Sorry but I am a little fed up with these excuses during many years already. If the macOS commits finally get merged, what will be the next excuse? Remember, we are talking about many years of waiting for a minor bug fix release of a rather big and popular SW project.
A new release should be a number 1. priority now for FPC developers. It is not which is quite a middle finger for the users.

[kupferstecher]

[...] main isn't even remotely in a release-worthy state due to various major issues [...]

It seems there is only a main and fixes branch and no experimental?
So it could be that by adding new features main could still even get further away from a release-worthy state instead of getting closer?