Creating a version number system is difficult when there’s a version control system with small commits. The version numbers are based on some tag plus the git commit. KiCad developers chose the system where there is the next planned version number (in this case 5.0.0 rc2 where rc2 means a release candidate version before 5.0.0), then “dev” which here means it’s a development version leading to the beforementioned version, then some release number (I don’t know what it means TBH), then gxxxxx means the specific unambiguous git commit.
Maybe it would have been better to choose another system, for example “previous_released_version+gxxxxx” where “+” would have meant, well, previous_released_version plus some git commits. It would have been less ambiguous in my opinion. At least it wouldn’t have lead people to hastily interpret it meaning they have the 5.0.0rc2 version at hand which actually hasn’t been released yet.
It looks complicated but one thing is for sure. I do not have RC2 in my hand now and I have to leave with it waiting and hoping for the official release.
Than you guys for helping me on this
If don’t remember if the version number system was changed or is this due to Wayne forgetting the push the tag before changing the version number code, but the latest version number (today’s nightly build on Windows) is 5.0.0-rc2-37-ga8db21319, and rc2 has been tagged. So, maybe we don’t have as confusing version numbers as I thought.
As for other news, milestone rc3 has been added for development purposes, but it’s still unclear whether rc3 will be tagged later or if it will be directly 5.0.0. Anyways, the situation looks good, but until now it always has been longer than expected… I’m still not as pessimistic as bobc was above, but version 5 certainly wasn’t ready for quarter 1 of 2018.
There are no new news from the developers. Here’s the related bug list: https://launchpad.net/kicad/+milestone/5.0.0-rc3. There are no critical bugs which are actually planned to be fixed for the next tag. Until now new critical bugs (mostly crashes) have emerged and and have then been fixed all the time. That seems to be the only reason why 5.0 hasn’t been released.
In my opinion it would be better if you all would take the nightly builds and start using them. That way the looming crashes and data losses would be found and fixed faster. Well, this opinion needs quite many smileys…
But seriously, I anticipate seeing a rush of many new bug reports after 5.0 has been released. It would be better to catch them before the release, but if it’s not released, people won’t use it. Catch 22.
It seems we are really getting close. Wayne just announced that rc3 will be tagged shortly. If no major bug is found the release might come sometime in the week between 9th and 15th of June.
More details see: https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg36374.html
RC3 released a few hours ago. I have been standing by waiting before jumping in so I can learn it once, not twice.
So now I am in a position that I need to learn in a hurry how to install it. Total newbie.
Could somebody write a concise instruction to install, at least in Windows (mine is Win7)? I saw a post that showed default directory locations in Program Files\Kicad. Do I extract the whole archive and place it there ?
Maybe this should be the start of a new thread?
Not released, just tagged. Release will take in a few weeks.
If you are champing at the bit, the latest nightly is as close as you can get for now, download the 30 June build from http://downloads.kicad.org/windows/nightly/. To install, just run the exe.
If releasing rc3 takes weeks then v5 will be out before there is a package for rc3 I suspect the operating systems that get a package for rc3 will have it within a few days.
That won’t likely happen unless someone, like you, writes it.
I can tell you that for a very recent nightly, with a clean install (as if KiCad was never on the machine), ensure that all the options are checked (except maybe the help files). Then agree to all the default prompts.
Using a recent RC2 nightly would be my recommendation; standard “using the nightlies disclaimer” applies. The reality is that when more users start to transition to V5 more bugs may be found; but this situation is also likely to happen when the official “stable” is released.
Even though there is not great documentation at this time, most things are more intuitive than they have been in the past. If you can not find a solution you can always post your question here on this forum.
