The last update to the Dev branch was indeed 29 days ago, but that does not mean development has stopped
https://github.com/Beep6581/RawTherapee/branches
Yes, I saw those notations of updates of “active branches” but I didn’t see any explicit information about what those branches were and how those active branches relate to development and the eventual release of a new development branch. I still don’t quite understand. As I said, I’ve been doing very frequent dev branch compiles for many years. I have done that because of personal interest and to be able to report any issues I find to developers.
I simply didn’t want to miss something if something was available for avid users to use and test. Thanks again for your limited answer. It’s great to know that development is ongoing. It’s unfortunate that we can’t have additional insight into the slower pace of releases of dev versions and what it means. However, I also understand that you may also be in the dark about that.
Thank you for what you were able to report.
Don
Like you, I am just a passionate user and not a developer. I really don’t know why development has slowed down, but I hope that the devs are doing well and it’s not something wrong. I understand that it is all volunteer work and I appreciate everything they do.
There’s no straightforward way to attach a description to a branch. The best way to see what will be going into the dev branch is to look at the pull requests. Not all branches have pull requests though.
The lack of updates to the dev branch are mainly due to two things. One, as mentioned already, is the slowdown of development activity. The other reason is that we are (or at least I am) waiting for the 5.9 release to happen. I have two feature pull requests open which I don’t want to merge into dev because I don’t want to introduce last minute bugs. The Exiv2 metadata branch is also waiting for similar reasons.
Now, back to the topic of this thread. I’ve been working on building AppImages directly in GitHub. It is not meant to be a replacement for the broken nightly builds, but rather a backup. The builds will be available here https://github.com/Beep6581/RawTherapee/actions/workflows/appimage.yml. Click on a build and you should see the Appimage under the artifacts. This has not been tested thoroughly, so it may not work for everyone.
Two years ago, the core development team basically consisted of 3 or 4 people with long-term involvement in the project. Nearly all of them needed to shift their attention to their private life - although not everyone communicated this clearly. So, unfortunately, this has left the project hanging in limbo.
I still visit Pixls on a daily basis, and I consider myself the de facto maintainer of the project (even though not with all rights and privileges), so in that sense, ‘official’ support is still available. Then again, there are plenty of people who can provide excellent answers to RT related questions.
This is certainly true. The underlying issue is that the person with intimate knowledge of the release process is not available. And nobody else knows (or dares?) to make a release on their own.
My 2¢ (take it for what it’s worth) is that the current dev version, 5.8-3049, is more than worthy of the moniker 5.9 Beta and should be released as such.
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Oh I totally agree. However, there’s the issue of packaging stuff so that it properly works and can be installed on the different OSes we support. The tech savvy people already know how to run RT, but a release should also work for the broad audience.
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Until now, was the process of packaging RT for the various platforms (Linux, Windows, OSX), somewhat automated or was it done manually?
If it was done manually, who was doing it and is it documented somewhere?
Thanks.
@Lawrence37 wrote: “I have two feature pull requests open which I don’t want to merge into dev because I don’t want to introduce last minute bugs. The Exiv2 metadata branch is also waiting for similar reasons.”
Pardon my ignorance (density?) but that means proper CR3 metadata support will be in 5.9.x, not initially 5.9, correct?
Thanks.
This is correct, as far as I am concerned.
Honestly, I don’t know. There is this: How to release RawTherapee - RawPedia but it seems a bit barebones.
We should work to democratize that knowledge once the people in the know return 
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Thanks, but the link on RawPedia you mention is about releasing the source code.
We need people who could:
- Prepare the source code tarball as mentioned in the RawPedia link above.
- Compile the Linux version and create an AppImage for the Linux platform.
- Compile the Windows version and package it in an installable version for the Windows platform (I don’t run Windows so I don’t even know if the version available on the official website contains an installer).
- Compile the OSX version and package it as a .dmg package.
I could do 1) and 2) if needed.
Also, the content on the official website will have to be updated with the new release announcement (and explanation of the new features) and updated links to the new files above.
Do any of of you have access to the official website?
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Yes, we have access to the website.
OK, so how shall we proceed if we want to attempt a 5.9 release based on build 5.8-3049?
Who is the project leader now?
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Not sure that making a release without some key people around is a good idea.
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I agree with Mica.
I really, really want 5.9 to happen but we need to do this in a way that makes everybody, but especially the major developers and maintainers (on a break or not) happy. I do not want to see them completely walk away from RawTherapee just because we couldn’t wait a bit longer and pushed things through. If that was to happen then I’m afraid that RawTherapee would be in very bad water.
At the moment there are, all but 100%, stable development images available for all 3 major platforms. All of these include the major changes that are made over the last ~1.5 years. So there seems to be no reason to rush things in my opinion.
Yes, the Linux nightly build is lacking a bit behind (@Lawrence37 has a alternative if the “old” nightly build doesn’t have what you need and the very latest does). Besides. most people that are active on pixls and use RawTherapee are willing to help when there are (special) install issues that need to be solved.
I don’t understand this sudden push/urge/rush to get to 5.9. The current situation might be a bit strange (using the official stable version is discouraged) but does RawTherapee not work? Are the latest development images lacking major support or has bugs?
So please don’t rush things (but do get a move on 
).
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My impression was that there was a fairly strong will (from people here) to release the next version, thus I suggested contributing.
But I agree with what you said: it makes more sense that this is done by the official maintainers.
In the meantime, I’m quite happy with compiling and using the latest dev version 
I hope this is just a temporary bump on the road and that RT development will carry on for many years to come 
Thanatomanic, Lawrence37, paperdigits, et al.:
Thank you for your contributions to clarifying the issues contributing to the current slower pace of updates.
The latest dev version works well with my R5 FF images. I’m comfortable waiting for experienced RT developers to make the decisions about new releases and when a new dev version is useful.
I have been using this new AppImage for some time now but now I see that it cannot be downloaded any more?!?!
Edit: Never mind. Apparently it can only be downloaded if one is logged into Github.
The most recent alternative dev AppImages can now be downloaded here (no GitHub account required): https://github.com/Beep6581/RawTherapee/releases/tag/nightly-github-actions. Signed-in GitHub users can still download dev builds and builds from pull requests and other branches from the Actions tab.
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