TatukGIS is changing to a new and simpler Developer Kernel version numbering scheme to better reflect its strategy in recent years of monthly incremental progress, as evidenced by DK product updates (for each supported development platform) released near the end of almost every month. Each monthly update contains meaningful new features and/or functionality enhancements (so not just bug fixes!). Sometimes the new functionality is huge – such as the recently added support for the Python development language. Advantages of the incremental strategy for TatukGIS customers include:
- faster delivery of useful new functionality, improvements, and support for technologies,
- increased efficiency because migrating application development to each new DK monthly version typically requires zero or minimal adjustments. Frequent updating to the latest version often minimizes the coding effort!
In addition to a DK stable version typically released on the final Friday of most months, a weekly unstable version is typically released on the first three Fridays of each month to allow interested customers to test and comment on proposed modifications before they become permanent.
The previous version numbering scheme, e.g., DK 10.x, DK 11.x, etc., no longer makes sense for us because it could convey an impression that one should wait for a major new version number for significantly upgraded functionality, that migrating application development to a newer DK version involves significant incompatibilities, or even that DK development has stagnated. The reality is quite the opposite!
The new numbering scheme drops the 10.x, 11.x, etc., and simply assigns the next higher number to each successive DK product version. This change goes into effect November 24 with release of stable DK v84, which follows DK v11.83.1 released on November 3. The next stable version after that, expected near the end of December, will be v85, and so on. (Version numbering of the desktop GIS Editor and GIS Viewer products will soon change in a similar way.)
We hope this more simplistic numbering scheme will offer more visibility to the monthly DK development progress. Remember that the history of all significant changes and enhancements provided in each DK version is documented in the changelog at:
https://docs.tatukgis.com/DK11/readme:whatsnew