I am pretty sure there will be some release earlier.
IMHO they should delete the Windows 3.4.1 ASAP, since it’s basically unusable. 3.4.0 should stay the current Windows version for now. A dt newcomer on Windows may come to the conclusion that dt is bug ridden and not return for years.
The problem is the chronic lack of devs/testers in Windows, so unfortunately the releases for that OS are more prone to undetected bugs.
Most of the issues with 3.4.0 and 3.4.1 have been already fixed in the 3.5 development relase, so you could use a nightly build or learn to build DT yourself, it’s not difficult. Remember to alway make a backup of database before upgrading.
And if someone wants to help with testing of new releases, that’s more than welcome.
When installing 3.5 it asks to agree to convert the DB. Does it use a different DB format? I didn’t see any improvements in 3.4.1 that effect me, I can use 3.4.0 for now (and still be happy).
There is a list of bug fixes. How do I find more detail about what has been fixed? In particular, I am interested in finding out more detail about what this means:
Fix Lr metadata import, this is done only if no other XMP present.
I think it would help if they would release Beta EXE versions for people to play with and report back. I believe the ‘build yourself’ is beyond many users capability, and some are too lazy (me).
Just releasing beta versions isn’t enough. You’d also need people capable of (and willing!) generating backtraces (for crashes) or using a debugger (for non-crashing bugs), if only to exclude bugs in libraries (including windows libraries).
The process to setup a build environment for windows ist well described and can be done by everyone who’s interested in improving the software.
It’s quite easy, if you’re too lazy to be active, you must be very patient in waiting for somebody doing things for you
It doesn’t help to point to rawtherapee - their devs won’t provide a darktable nightly build for you
So if it’s that import to you, why don’t you provide a windows build? You’re free to do so … or just fix the ci environment for windows. Why should a dev using linux do this for you?
In this case it’s more complex that being able to build DT in Windows.
In fact, within my limited spare time, I collaborate with the dev team to test, bugfix and small developments. I have a full IDE setup for DT in both Windows and Linux. Still, I didn’t detect the critical bug, because it didn’t affect the master development version, but only the 3.4.1 and I simply didn’t think to perform regression tests there.
I guess releasing beta versions in .exe or .msi form could help to have a larger testing user base.
of course it could, but someone must do this instead of just asking for it - a build isn’t done by itself
Unfortunately, there are too few Windows users who want to actively participate instead of just making suggestions.
Just a note, for RawTherapee I don’t d/l the EXE files, I get the ZIP, which are actually zipped folders and don’t interfere with my installed version.
For the same reason I would prefer a darktable folder rather than an EXE file. With a folder you can run as many darktables parallel as you like - one just needs a BAT file that specifies a separate database location. I typically have my database inside the folder. So with a new darktable I just place the old database in the new darktable installation after running it once to create my install folders. Work perfectly.
This is probably a lower entry requirement than a ‘build’. It would just take one Windows user that in stalled darktable to ZIP the folder and donate it.